So to be clear on what happened here, Dave, it's not that the seller intentionally, you know, sold you a lemon. This was, this was a, this was a, a more kind of nuanced case of miscommunication than, than that.
Acquiring Minds
When a $2.8m Acquisition Is More Like Zero-to-One
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Well, I think it goes beyond that. I think this is where it's tough due diligence because sellers, sellers had a vision. They believed in their vision.
And I'm still friends with them. I like them a lot, you know, but they were building toward a vision. They had family involved.
Would I not have family involved? I don't know. I mean, can't fault them for wanting to pay their mom and dad for helping out and providing value. Right. Or their son or whoever else was involved.
Right. There were quite a few, but they just had a vision that I don't think worked long term. And so can you get a seller to tell you that their vision won't work long term? No way. That's never going to happen.
Yeah, right. You're never going to get someone. It's like a CEO saying, hey, I'm too busy, I need a, a coo, Right? Like, could that happen?
Sometimes, sometimes my, you know, some people will realize that, hey, I need some help. But getting a seller to, to say that their vision is not going to work long term or the vision that you have is not going to mix with their vision. Like, maybe they're, maybe they could realize their vision and maybe it would work with them still running it with their family.
But for me, objectively looking at it as a third party, it didn't translate to a third party using their vision. I had to come up with a vision that I thought would work. Right. And it wasn't their vision.
And that's a further bummer, Dave, because part of the value proposition of ETA is that you're buying product market fit. You're buying a business model that's already proven in the market. And here you buy a business where you need to rethink the entire model.
Yep.
You, I mean, you still have raw ingredients, but, but really, you. You kind of strip this thing down to the studs and start it over in some sense?
Yeah, absolutely. There's no question about. I absolutely did. And that was one of the bummers for me as I was buying the business is because I went from zero. I, I Came from zero to one.
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