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Acquiring Minds
Good Bones: Saving a $3m Business in Decline
Deal story
Himmat Singh, a self-identified hands-on operator, bought a $3M large-format printing business (EPI Color Space) in DC for a $500K 100% seller note, expecting it to be semi-passive. After his top salesperson defected and tried to poach clients, he went all-in, bought out his investor partner to become 100% owner, and brought on a sweat-equity partner. The episode also explores his prior run as a non-owner CEO at home-care company Circle of Life, where a 3% stake yielded a life-changing exit.
Deal facts
Industry
Large-format printing and signage
Business
Signage, wall murals, trade show booths, wayfinding/ADA signage
Location
Washington, DC area
Revenue
~$3M historic average, ~$2.4M recent years
SDE / EBITDA
$650K-$700K historic, ~$400K at acquisition
Multiple
~1x-1.25x stated, ~2x including working capital injection
Deal size
$500K (100% seller note, 0% interest over 5 years)
Acquisition model
Partnered
Outcome
Survived top-salesperson defection; Himmat bought out partner to become 100% owner; brought on sweat-equity partner Kevin Durbin; ~$2.1M sales / ~$300K EBITDA at end of 2024, building toward growth/exit
People
Will Smithhost
Host of Acquiring Minds podcast about buying businesses
Himmat Singhguest
Wharton MBA, career operator; owner/operator of EPI Color Space, former CEO of Circle of Life
Kevin Durbinother
Himmat's sweat-equity partner; ex-Goldman Sachs, ex-Exer VP, Georgetown grad
Pat Yeagerother
Founder of Circle of Life home care who hired Himmat as CEO; passed away during his tenure
Josh Greenbergother
Alpine/team home care lead, former searcher who acquired Circle of Life from Himmat
Bill Eganother
Original search fund investor (Asurion); father of Himmat's friend Mark Egan
Topics
Excerpts · 418 segments · ~1:48:41 long
Short excerpts only — hear the full conversation on the publisher's site.
04:30 Himmat's operator-focused background07:05 Failed search fund, 11 LOIs16:46 Running Circle of Life as CEO26:56 Operational fixes that doubled EBITDA48:26 Acquiring EPI Color Space deal terms1:01:42 Investor conflict-of-interest concern1:07:16 Large-format printing industry1:27:27 Sales crisis, partner buyout, Kevin
Hi Will, great to be here. Thank you.
Himmat, you are a guy that identifies as an operator. You've had a successful career as the operator for others businesses. Today you are operator of the business that you acquired and own.
It's a large format printing business. We're going to hear all about it. But let's begin with some background on you please.
Himan Absolutely, absolutely Will. So I consider myself a hands on operator. So I have been running or operating a business ever since I finished business school in 2007 and prior to that I was a management consultant after my undergrad.
So when I was coming out of business school I knew what I didn't want to do. I didn't want to be a consultant and I didn't want to be investment banker, sales and trading or leveraged finance. I wasn't quite sure how to get to the track of buying a business or operating a business.
And to be honest I wasn't really exposed to it despite being an entrepreneurial management major at Wharton. So initially I joined, you know, the upside of a private equity fund but very quickly moved to industry and I got a tremendous opportunity to run a chemicals business while I was a CIO for a billion dollar company and this was in India and that was a turnaround and I did really well.
I moved back home to the US and that's when I sort of accidentally got exposed to a search fund model. And I find that fascinating because while I was at I didn't know anything about search funds despite being very close as a friend with Mark Egan who was also the same major as me. We took a lot of classes and his father is one of the big original investors in this space.
Mark Egan was your friend and his father's name is what his Father is Bill Egan.
And yeah, Bill Egan, he unfortunately passed away last year in September. But Bill is one of the original investors who invested in Asuran. And you know, he came from a private equity background himself, had built many amazing funds.
But then as most of the original investors in the search fund world, they started investing their own money into that space.
Great. So you were exposed to search funds via Mark or, or, or at being at school friends with Mark, whose father was Bill Egan. And this was what year?
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