Buying for $600k, Selling for $35m

Today's guest observes that many great entrepreneurs are risk mitigators more than they are risk takers. Risk mitigation was his own approach and it worked out very well for Jake Bittner. Jake had devoted the first 10 years of his career to enterprise software sales.

Selling, he calculated, was the best skill to cultivate for a successful entrepreneurial future. He also built deep expertise in a network throughout his niche of government focused data analytics. Finally, he built up a nest egg during that decade.

So by the time he had the opportunity to buy a business in his industry, he was extremely well positioned. He understood the business deeply, he knew the clients, he could hold his breath and not take salary for a while and this recipe was enough to get the business, which was actually an unprofitable. Carve, out on firm footing.

But it wasn't until a few years later that Jake and his partner scrutinized their business model and made a pivot. That is when things really took off, culminating in a life changing exit for the duo. Listen for Jake's enthusiasm for Govtech, which is not a category we hear about much in eta.

After this story gets out there, maybe that will change. Here he is, Jake Buettner, former CEO and co owner of Clarion and an LP at Mines Capital. You know that getting a business under LOI is a key milestone, but also a starting gun.

Getting your deal from LOI to a closed SBA funded acquisition is a race, and most business buyers don't realize how many hurdles are ahead until they hit one. This Thursday, leading SBA loan broker Heather Endresen will host a webinar, walking you through the acquisition process like a coach preparing you for a race.

You'll learn how to increase your speed, avoid painful delays, outmaneuver other buyers, and anticipate obstacles before they appear. The webinar is how to Run the SBA Deal Race. It is this Thursday, December 4th, noon Eastern.

Link to register for the webinar 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. If you ask owners in the ETA and search community which insurance broker provides highest quality work, great outcomes, and has a practice dedicated to searchers and acquisition entrepreneurs, one name comes up again and again.

Oberle 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…

To know August and the team at Oberle. To take advantage. Check out oberly-risk.com that's o b e r l e-risk.com link in the notes. Jake Bittner welcome to Acquiring Minds.

Thanks for having me.