Surviving a 2-Month Revenue Freeze in Year 1

Today's guest spent his career studying healthcare from the outside, first in managed care operations, then as an investment banker doing healthcare M&A. Then he pivoted, bought a business, and got a crash course in the one thing the spreadsheets never fully prepared him for, working capital. What else? Chibuna Chemezi is a Nigerian immigrant who grew up in Jersey City, where his parents worked…

After a Duke MBA and a stretch in healthcare investment banking, Chibuna went the self-funded SBA route, deliberately buying a smaller company so he could hold 89% of the equity, rather than the roughly 25% a traditional search fund would have left him. The business is Veterans Room, a behavioral health provider serving veterans. Chibuna acquired it in August 2025 for $1.6 million.

In his first week of ownership, a congressional fight froze all telehealth claims. So for nearly two months, Chibuna kept delivering services with no revenue coming in at all. a live demonstration of why he'd been so deliberate about post-acquisition liquidity.

Listen for that. Also listen for how he came to think about working capital, not as money, but as a tool the business needs to run, like gas in a car you've just bought. Here is Chibuna Chimezi, owner of Veterans Room. Pop quiz. What's the most common reason that acquisitions fail after close?

Regular listeners could probably guess working capital, specifically running out of working capital in year one. Well, in a webinar this Thursday, Andrew Hippert and Daniel Duran of Acquisition Lab will walk through how to make sure your acquisition has the cash it needs from day one.

Among the topics you'll learn this Thursday, the five ways to fund working capital at close, how to estimate what your business will actually need in year one, a live walkthrough of the financial model the lab uses with members to size the working capital requirement before signing, common misses in first-time buyer estimates, and how to spot an undercapitalized deal before you sign.

The webinar is Learn to Avoid the Number One Reason Acquisitions Fail. And it is this Thursday, August 13th, noon Eastern. Link to register is right at the top of this episode's show notes or on the Acquiring Minds homepage, acquiringminds.co.

Welcome to Acquiring Minds, a podcast about buying businesses. My name is Will Smith. Acquiring an existing business is an awesome opportunity for many entrepreneurs. And on this podcast, I talk to the people who do it.

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Oberle Risk Strategies has worked with hundreds of searchers over nearly a decade and is in fact led by a two-time successful searcher, August Felker, which makes Oberle a specialty insurance brokerage for searchers by a former searcher. And if you've got a business under LOI, Oberle will provide complimentary due diligence on that business's insurance and benefits program. An easy, no-risk way…

To take advantage, check out oberle-risk.com. That's O-B-E-R-L-E hyphen risk.com. Link in the notes. Welcome to Acquiring Minds.

Thank you for having me. Chibuna, when this episode airs, you will be almost exactly one year into your ownership of Veterans Room, a behavioral health business serving veterans and their families. So many details that I want to address in your story.