The Origin Story of a Compounder ($80m and Counting)

I've been reading a book recommended by. Niklas, my partner in Mind's Capital. It's called the Compounders From Small Acquisitions to Giant Shareholder Returns.

As one of the blurbs says about the book, it's a blueprint for turning small acquisitions into generational wealth. Well, today's guests have set out to build a compounder themselves in the H Vac space. Greg Shapiro and Zach Cooper Vostola are two of the three founding partners of Hickory, which today sits at 80 million top line with 300 people and 200 vehicles.

We hear the story of their first acquisition in Manhattan of all places, and how their vision has evolved in the eight years since. Today, they see themselves as the anti PE home for trades businesses in a world where PE is gobbling up the trades. So this is the origin story of the compounder business that Greg, Zach and the team at Hickory aim to in a business that I know many of you too would…

Here are Greg Shapiro and Zach Cooper Vistola, co founders of Hickory. Today Thursday, Franzi CEO Alex Smarczniak will host a webinar on the intersection of ETA and franchising. Alex will discuss the pros and cons of buying an independent business versus Franchise resales as well as franchise resales versus De novo franchising.

We don't want to be dogmatic on Acquiring minds. There are also great opportunities in starting. Franchise businesses, of course.

Alex will also bring two franchise resale listings to do deal teardowns, unpacking how to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of these opportunities, from category to franchise system to price to deal terms. He'll also share a number of case studies on empire builders, that is Entrepreneurs who have built very large holdings through the acquisition of existing franchise businesses.

The webinar is franchising for the ETA buyer resales, roll ups and real deals. And it is today, Thursday, June 4th at noon Eastern. Link to register is right at the top of this episode's show notes or on the Acquiring Minds homepage.

Acquiringminds Copy some good news out of the SBA last week. You may have heard recently that anyone who so much has invested in an SBA deal that went into default was denied access to any future SBA financing for themselves. Meaning, for example, if you wrote a $5,000 check into your buddy's H.

VAC acquisition 10 years ago and he defaulted, you would never be able to access SBA financing again. There are reasons of bureaucratic process that this policy came into effect. Too long to explain here, but happily this has been reversed.

If you invested into a defaulted SBA deal but were non controlling, non guarantor and held less than 20% ownership. You can continue to access SBA financing, which is good news and actually just a reset to how things were in 2025, but certainly a welcome reset. Separately on the SBA, you may have seen that the SBA loan limit has expanded to $10 million for entrepreneurs combining 7A and 504 loans.

There is nuance here and last week SBA loan broker extraordinaire Heather Endreson presented an Acquiring Minds webinar explaining that nuance and the new possibilities. You can find a recording of it. On our website Acquiring Minds co under webinars.

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.