The SMB Deal Hunter Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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The SMB Deal Hunter Podcast

Helen Guo

Business

Frequency: 1 episode/9d. Total Eps: 85

Every week, Helen Guo interviews successful acquisition entrepreneurs, independent sponsors, and investors who have acquired businesses. Learn how to buy a business rather than starting one from scratch from those who have done it themselves.

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Data updated on 14/07/2026

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🇨🇦 Canada - Entrepreneurship
01/05/2026
#77

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https://join.smbdealhunter.xyz
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https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz
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https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz/
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-guo-06674523/
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https://youtu.be/ef2LEdLh7Mg
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Score global : 52%

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Why He'd Rather Hold 6 Businesses for 40 Years Than Flip Them

Episode 91

Friday, April 24, 2026 • Duration 01:04:27

Ryan spent 30 years in corporate America running businesses for other people. Then he got fired twice — never for performance, always for politics. He decided to never build for someone else again.

He co-founded North Park Group with his partner Greg Topol and built a holding company designed around one rule: never exit. Since 2022, he's bought 6 businesses in manufacturing and industrial distribution. He plans to own them until he's 85.

❌ No 5-year flip
❌ No PE-style fund timeline
❌ No 7-year wait for investors to see a return

His investors got their first distribution checks in 2022 — the same year he closed his first deal. He pays them twice a year. Today, 8 out of 10 people he pitches say yes.
In this episode, Ryan breaks down why he'd rather hold a business for 40 years than flip it every 5, how he wins deals without being the highest bidder, and why his year-one operating playbook at every company he buys is "don't fuck it up."

◼️ Why holding for 40 years can make you just as much money — if not more — than flipping every 5
◼️ The "distributions as proof points" model that converts 8 out of 10 investors
◼️ How he wins deals without being the highest bidder (one was 10% below the top offer)
◼️ The pre-LOI diligence inversion that lets him walk away before lawyers get involved
◼️ The $250K he lost on the one deal that broke — and what it taught him
◼️ The SBA-stacked operator model he uses to scale past his personal $5M lending cap

Subscribe to the SMB Deal Hunter newsletter (200,000+ subscribers): https://join.smbdealhunter.xyz/

Want help buying a business?
Learn about SMB Deal Hunter Pro: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz/

Follow Helen:
Twitter: https://x.com/HelenGuo_
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-guo-06674523/

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He Put $0 Down and Sold It for $35 Million

Episode 90

Friday, April 17, 2026 • Duration 01:01:05

Jake spent 12 years selling data analytics software at SAP, MicroStrategy, and Informatica. Then SAP reassigned him from federal government sales to retail. He decided to take his career into his own hands.

He acquired a money-losing, 7-person government data analytics firm with 100% seller financing. Zero cash out of pocket.

❌ No playbook for buying a business
❌ No community or infrastructure around acquisitions
❌ Business was unprofitable on day one

10 years later, he sold it for $35 million at 11x EBITDA.

In this episode, Jake breaks down how he negotiated 100% seller financing on a deal nobody wanted, how he went from 54% customer retention to 95%, and why the hustle that saved the business early on was the same thing holding it back from growing.

◼️ The two-valuation trick that got both sides to agree on the price
◼️ Why the sellers financed the whole deal (and how to find sellers like this)
◼️ How he went from stuck at 5% growth to hitting 35-40% growth rates
◼️ The $35M exit and why his financial advisor told him to take it
◼️ The PE earn out nightmare — and how he eventually collected

Subscribe to the SMB Deal Hunter newsletter (200,000+ subscribers): https://join.smbdealhunter.xyz/

Want help buying a business?
Learn about SMB Deal Hunter Pro: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz/

Follow Helen:
Twitter: https://x.com/HelenGuo_
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-guo-06674523/

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His Business Is Boring, But It Returns 50% a Year

Episode 89

Friday, April 10, 2026 • Duration 01:22:26

Greg Geronemus went from Goldman Sachs to Harvard Business School, where he stumbled into the idea of buying a small business instead of starting one. He and his partner David Rosner raised $550K in search capital, built a database of 30,000 companies, and spent nearly two years searching for the right deal.
They signed one LOI. It was for a business that checked none of the boxes: an old-fashioned B2C tour operator sending baby boomers on group trips around the world. He bought it for $29 million at under 5x with a 50% seller note at 4%.
Four years later, he sold to a private equity firm. Nearly 50% annualized returns. Almost 5x net to investors. Today, he runs Footbridge Partners, investing in the next generation of searchers.

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Why He's Buying "Dead" Bowling Alleys Nobody Wants

Episode 88

Friday, April 3, 2026 • Duration 51:37

Mike Fagan is a former professional bowler who spent 13 seasons on the PBA tour before getting his MBA at UC Berkeley Haas and working in management consulting. In April 2025, he acquired Ten Pins and More, a bowling alley in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, for $2.05 million including real estate via SBA 7A financing. The bank classified the deal as a turnaround. Today, he owns two locations with a third on the way, operates remotely from Dallas 600 miles away, and is scaling toward $8-10 million in revenue across 3-5 locations.

He explains:
◼️ Why bowling alleys are undervalued, below replacement cost, and have almost no competing buyers
◼️ How he got SBA financing on a deal the bank said wasn't cash flowing enough to cover the payments
◼️ The zero-COGS economics behind bowling and why the business fills itself four days a week without marketing
◼️ How he went from flying in every week for nine months to running the business fully remote from 600 miles away
◼️ Why his pro bowling background gives him an acquisition advantage that no other buyer in the space can replicate

Subscribe to the SMB Deal Hunter newsletter (200,000+ subscribers): Join for free here
Want help buying a business? Learn about SMB Deal Hunter Pro
Follow Helen:
Twitter: https://x.com/HelenGuo_
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-guo-06674523/

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He Raised $125M on LinkedIn to Buy Boring Businesses (it worked...)

Episode 87

Thursday, April 2, 2026 • Duration 57:44

Sam Silverman raised $125 million in investor capital almost entirely through LinkedIn cold outreach solo, no team, no fund behind him. He deployed that capital into a paving company roll-up with four acquisitions in 18 months, an accounting firm he built from scratch, and a private credit fund. He started as an SDR making $37,000 a year.

❌ No finance degree
❌ No Wall Street background
❌ No inherited deal flow — 95% of his capital came from LinkedIn

In this episode, Sam breaks down exactly how he went from cold messaging strangers on LinkedIn to managing a portfolio of boring businesses backed by $125 million in investor capital.

Work With Me to Help You Buy a Business: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz/

🔥 WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

✅ How he raised his first $20-30 million entirely through LinkedIn cold outreach by targeting people in his own industry, and the peer-to-peer approach that made strangers trust him with six-figure checks

✅ The specific LinkedIn Sales Navigator tactic he uses to find investors at the exact moment they can deploy capital — people who switched jobs in the last 90 days and can roll their 401k into a self-directed IRA

✅ Why he chose paving over HVAC, landscaping, or any other blue-collar roll-up — and how one concrete acquisition would add $2 million EBITDA to the bottom line on day one

✅ How he structures deals so sellers stay on and actually enjoy working post-acquisition, and why every new LOI in his pipeline came as a referral from a previous seller

✅ The 1.5-2x equity step-up structure he recommends for first-time buyers who want to acquire a business with little or no capital of their own

✅ Why he says go bigger on your first deal — and the specific risk he sees in buying anything under $1 million in EBITDA

Why This Startup Founder Bought an Electrical Contracting Business | Fred McGill of Bray Electrical

Episode 86

Friday, March 20, 2026 • Duration 57:46

Join me as I sit down with Fred McGill from Atlanta, Georgia–a former startup founder who made the leap into small business acquisition.

Exactly one year ago, Fred acquired Bray Electrical Services, an electrical contracting business. In just 12 months, he’s grown the top line by $650,000, while still running his real estate brokerage on the side.

If you’re thinking about buying a business in the trades or want a real look at what it takes to scale one, don’t miss this story.
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👉 Subscribe to the SMB Deal Hunter Newsletter — free weekly deals & insights: https://join.smbdealhunter.xyz

🤝 Work with me and my team 1-on-1 to find, finance, and close your acquisition in 6–12 months: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz

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How He Went From English Teacher To 40 Business Acquisitions

Episode 85

Friday, March 13, 2026 • Duration 56:18

Join me as I interview Dominic Wells, the CEO of Onfolio, a publicly traded portfolio of around 20 internet businesses ($ONFO).
Dom went from making $1-$2K/month teaching English in Taiwan 10 years ago to acquiring about 40 online businesses over the past decade.
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👉 Sign Up For Free to the SMB Deal Hunter Newsletter: https://join.smbdealhunter.xyz

🤝 Work With Me to Help You Find, Finance, and Acquire a Business in 6-12 Months: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz

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How He Makes $100k+/mo With 800 ATMs | Mitchell Sorkin

Episode 84

Friday, March 6, 2026 • Duration 33:50

Join me as I interview successful acquisition entrepreneur Mitchell Sorkin.

Mitchell left the startup world after bootstrapping his business Stack Influence to $1M.

He then got into acquisition entrepreneurship by buying ATM routes. Mitchell first bought 3 ATMs in Oct. '21 and now owns 800+ ATMs.

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👉 Sign Up For Free to the SMB Deal Hunter Newsletter: https://join.smbdealhunter.xyz

🤝 Work With Me to Help You Buy a Business: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz

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He's done 200+ QofEs. Here's what sellers don't want you to know | Mubarak Shah

Episode 83

Friday, February 27, 2026 • Duration 57:47

Here's a number that should make you uncomfortable.

98% of the time, when a CPA digs into a business's financials, the real EBITDA comes back different from what the seller claimed.

And we're not talking about rounding errors. The real EBITDA is a different number entirely.

Sometimes it's 5% off. Sometimes it's 50% off. And in about a third of cases, the deal dies right there.

That number comes from a CPA who's done over 200 quality of earnings reports, on both the buy side and the sell side.

This week, I sat down with Mubarak Shah, a CPA, M&A advisor, and QoE specialist who also works with our members inside the Pro program.

Mubarak started his career in audit, became VP of Finance at a startup that raised a $10M Series A, and cut his teeth doing QoEs at firms that served private equity clients. He's now completed over 200 of them.

He's seen every trick in the book. And in this episode, he walks through exactly what sellers do to make their businesses look more profitable than they are.

Here are some of the highlights from the deep dive:

🔥 The seller accounting trick that sails right past SBA underwriting and can cost you millions (it's shockingly simple)

🔥 Why your bank's underwriting isn't designed to protect you, and what it's actually designed to do instead

🔥 The one M&A concept that nobody actually understands that led to a seven-figure lawsuit

🔥 A breakdown of , what it costs, how long it takes, and why the biggest bottleneck has nothing to do with the accountant

This CPA made all the MAJOR mistakes so you don't have to | Rushi Amin

Episode 82

Friday, February 20, 2026 • Duration 01:03:26

You'd think a CPA with six years at a Big Four firm and four years in investment banking would catch every red flag in a small business acquisition, right?

Wrong.

Rushi missed three big ones on his first deal.

He overpaid on the franchise.

He didn’t realize 25% of the franchise’s global locations were packed into his backyard.

And the business had to close for four months a year, which sounds great until your GM quits because they can’t afford to go all winter without a paycheck.

That was just deal #1. He was crazy enough to go back for round 2…

Here's what makes this episode worth watching...

🔥 How his second deal ended up being a one-man business with 90% margins (and how he grew it 20% in the first year)

🔥 How he brought his first acquisition to break even (after a disastrous start)

🔥 Why he’s going all in on business acquisition (and his third acquisition target)
_______________________________

👉 Sign Up For Free to the SMB Deal Hunter Newsletter: https://join.smbdealhunter.xyz

🤝 Work With Me to Help You Buy a Business: https://pro.smbdealhunter.xyz

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The SMB Deal Hunter Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

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The SMB Deal Hunter Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

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RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

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