A $800k Business to Start, $60m Portfolio Today

Today's guest started buying businesses about 10 years ago. And today the portfolio that Andrew Blazenko has acquired generates 60 million of aggregate revenue and 12 of EBITDA. But Andrew started small.

His first business was a building exterior cleaning company doing less than a million dollars in revenue, about $250,000 of SDE. He bought that one as a side investment while keeping his day job. Flash forward and in late 2024 he closed on a $19 million manufacturing business plus $22 million in associated real estate.

So you can see the trajectory here now. Though the size of the businesses Andrew acquires has changed dramatically, one thing has remained constant, his dependence on operators to make his acquisitions go. Andrew's playbook has always been to pair operators with businesses, which is nothing new really.

Private equity does the same. But Andrew didn't start as an independent sponsor doing deals in the style of pe. He started as an acquisition entrepreneur like you.

And though the conventional wisdom and even what we preach here on Acquiring Minds says that you should not expect to. Just install operators for your first acquisition, rather you should expect to be the operator. Andrew was installing operators from day one.

It has worked well for him and we unpack it. Here he is, Andrew Blazenko of Eterna Equity. 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. Buying a small business sounds simple.

Find a company, due diligence, get a loan close. In reality, you wear every hat just to get the deal done. And then the moment you close, you have to throw those deal making skills out the window and learn how to operate.

You shouldn't have to rebuild this infrastructure from scratch and you definitely shouldn't do it alone. That's why Walker Deibel created Acquisition Lab, which started as an accelerator, has expanded into a complete ecosystem for acquisition entrepreneurs. Over six years, the lab's 1200 members have acquired over a billion dollars in businesses.

The Lab puts everything under one roof. An active community, deal reviews, post close services, and a dedicated fund helping experienced operators buy larger businesses. If you're serious about buying a business, come see why Lab members have a 40% success rate.

Learn more in the show notes or at acquisitionlab.com/acquiring minds Andrew Blazenko, welcome to Acquiring Minds.

Thank you for having me. Will appreciate it.