Reward for 17-Month Deal: $1.8m of EBITDA

Like how I was hunting in terms of like pushing more of like, okay, let me at least go for like at least a million. For sure, 800, but if possible over a million.

You also came out of that conference very intrigued or maybe even decided to look at home health and home care.

Say more about that. And by the way, interesting because now you actually do have an industry thesis, despite the fact that we just said exactly, exactly that you, you weren't going to have a thesis. Those businesses are, are pretty ubiquitous.

So it's not unreasonable to think in all of Chicagoland and a couple hours north and a couple hours south that you not be able to find that. But still you were, you were so enthusiastic.

Yes.

About this industry that you decided actually I will have an industry thesis on it. So what did you learn?

So in terms of like the nuts and bolts, I didn't learn, you know, every nook and cranny, but it was explained to me through the handful of individuals. I talked through that, that two day conference that either had like home health, behavioral health, like tangential. What really appealed to me was someone explained it very basically.

It's like, hey man, it's low capex and like, you know, I don't know if you really understand but it's like, you know, your main cost is going to be variable because it's tied to like your employees and it's in lockstep with how much revenue you generate. So even in a down year, the overwhelming majority, your income statement is going to be in lockstep and fluctuate.

So you know, if you lose a client or something like that, like that revenue is gone, but then also that associated variable cost is gone and has to be redeployed with a new client. And that was really intriguing for me. I didn't have any hard operating experience and like I was super self aware of like more so being like a finance guy, maybe entrepreneurial spirit and like really scrappy.

But you know, I was real with myself. I didn't have what I would consider true operating experience. So I was trying to find something that aligned with Me to where I can get up to speed, learn the industry and then also not be overwhelmed with like, you know, managing, you know, capex and machinery and all that other kind of stuff.

Even though I'm still definitely interested in like, industrial services, but that was appealing to me. And then also the people I met, they just seemed like very familiar with me. I remember, you know, you know, I was so green at the time and trying to explain, like, oh, yeah, like, you know, I'm seeing these companies and I don't know, maybe trying to sound smart or whatever.