The Flywheel of Buying Businesses in a Single Region

When today's guest first tried to raise capital for his fund quote, it was the easiest no ever from investors. He was literally laughed at. Doug Lepisto and his partner were raising a fund to build an ETA ecosystem in their local region.

They envisioned working with searchers to buy businesses based in Western Michigan. Specifically the target businesses would be in that area, the searchers would live there and there would be a close association with Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo where. Doug is a professor.

The core idea was place based and long term. As Doug put it to me, if Brent be sure Warren Buffett, the search fund community in a university had a baby, that's what we would be Flash forward and Sleeping Giant Capital has done seven searcher led acquisitions and they're raising a second fund likely to be quite a bit larger than their first $34 million fund.

There are many themes here, including how Sleeping Giant finds, vets and trains searchers. What exactly searchers are signing up for here and what are the economics, the non concessionary nature of these acquisitions. That is, while it is impact investing, they do expect to generate market returns for themselves and their investors.

Could this model be viable in other regions and much more? Doug and I go deep on his model. As you listen, ask yourself if something similar could be built where you are.

Here he is Doug Lepisto of Sleeping Giant Capital. Enjoy. It is competitive out there and many business buyers can't get traction with brokers or owners because they don't stand out in any way. Brokers dismiss them as just another inexperienced searcher.

Sellers don't feel a connection with them and lenders hesitate to back them. Well, today, Thursday, September 11th, Athena Simpson, founder of AquaMatch, is returning to host a webinar on how to build a personal buyer brand that makes you memorable, credible, compelling on behalf of their buyer clients.

The team at AquaMatch is in Daily conversations with brokers and owners and lenders so they see up close why certain buyers get traction while many others go ignored. So come learn from Athena how to get noticed, get backed and ultimately get chosen as the buyer of your target business. That webinar is today, Thursday, September 11th noon Eastern.

Register at the link in today's show notes or on the Acquiring Minds homepage. Acquiring Minds 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. Oberly 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…

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