My first acquisition (the full story)

In last week’s email, I promised to share more about my first few deals.

Let’s get right into it.

I first started learning about acquisitions while I was working at JP Morgan.

But I had two problems:

1. I didn’t have much money saved up

2. I had zero experience buying businesses.

So I dove into every resource I could find.

I read acquisition books (my favorite was Buy Then Build by Walker Deibel) and scoured YouTube for what few videos existed about buying businesses.

The next year, I landed my first deal.

I was cold-messaging business owners on LinkedIn when one of them (a fellow army veteran) responded.

He owned a small software company doing $150k in annual recurring revenue, and I knew I could help him scale.

I couldn't get traditional funding like an SBA loan.

But I did have a solid network of wealthy people who could help raise capital.

So I made him an offer he couldn’t refuse:

“I’ll come on board as a partner for a chunk of equity. I’ll help grow the business, build out our team and processes, and use my connections to raise money.”

And that’s exactly what we did.

I came on with a minority stake for $5k out of pocket and put my nose to the grindstone for 12 months.

We scaled his software company 10X — from $150k in annual recurring revenue to over $1.5M.

I ended up taking home $180k a year in profit.

And I was still working at JP Morgan the whole time!

This was huge, because after trying everything from day trading to faceless YouTube channels to eCommerce, I'd finally found something that could replace my W2 income.

But my real goal was freedom, to spend time with my wife and kids instead of being chained to an office.

So I decided I was going to learn how to repeat the process.

Over the next 3 months at the software company, I hired and trained people to handle my day-to-day tasks as CFO.

Eventually, I got my workload down to just 1 hour per week, which freed me up to do a second acquisition.

After that, I left my W2 job for good.

I’ll tell you more about that soon.

Here’s the takeaway:

You don’t need to be rich or have an MBA to do what I did.

When I started, I made a decent six-figure salary. And there was barely any information on the internet about how to buy businesses.

But I succeeded because:

• I figured out a few key strategies and steps

• I identified a business that fit my lifestyle and goals

• And I found a creative way to finance the deal without putting a ton of money up front

If you’d like to learn how to do the same:

Fill out our 2-minute Interested Investor Survey here.

Or if you’re looking to sell a business:

Tell me the details here, and we’ll send vetted prospects your way.

See you in Thursday’s issue!

— Ben Kelly