BearFunds

@JordanPCarter This is 100% the way. 100K emails (including follow-ups) -> 10K responses -> 1K meetings -> 100 "fits" -> 10 LOIs sent -> 2-3 closed deals

Pursuing a proprietary outreach strategy in sourcing your acquisition? The #2023SelffundedSearchStudy shows that ~2/3 of successful proprietarily-sourced deals made initial contact through a cold email outreach strategy, while about 20% made contact through cold calls or mail

@investorSMB There's a @myfirstmilpod about getting scrappy with competitive intelligence. It's by far the best/most actionable episode. Watch that.

How to you keep track of your competitors? Do you a competitive intelligence tool? Do you look at their social media, websites, and reviews?

@ElliottEHolland Agreed. I pay $50K a pop for my QoEs and 15 things happen at the end of diligence and in the first 6 months of integration that make me thankful I pay up for an A-team.

Your cheap QoEs get you in more problems than they solve. Let's argue 😎

@jayvas Look at lots of businesses like this. My bid would probably be $1.5M at close with a $4-5M earnout. There are a lot of issues in this business but also a lot of opportunity. Cash flow is probably $0 here, so you're buying this with $0 debt and an ops turnaround

What would you pay to acquire this: $3.1m ARR SaaS: 90% gross retention, 80% gross margins, 20% YoY growth, $300k EBITDA, 40FTE, 18 enterprise customers. Supply chain/logistics vertical.

@BrianNorgard That's a bar. When are you dropping the album?

If a small company operates like a big company it will die, if a big company operates like a small company it might live.

Every smart person I speak to all has this suspicion that everyone is getting more sick, more often after COVID. Like our immune systems have been shot. Vaxed or unvaxed, doesn't matter. Age, doesn't matter. Perfectly healthy prior? Doesn't matter.

@girdley @SMB_Attorney @BrentBeshore I'm taking the boys to @Chilis tomorrow because of your memes. It better actually be good

@SMB_Attorney @BrentBeshore Please don't DM me unless it's pictures of your food at Chili's.

A bit of advice: Stop sending me DMs asking me if I’ll financially diligence a business. Asking @BrentBeshore or @girdley (sorry guys) would at least make sense. Asking a lawyer to underwrite an investment is like asking a PHD to conduct brain surgery. No bueno.

@YourDealTeam It depends on the number of family members involved and relationships. I've done really well in acquisitions where the husband and wife do different functions. When kids or siblings are involved, it starts to get dicey and it's usually an expensive affair asking them to leave

I'm always fearful of businesses where several family members work in it. Be careful if you're pursuing these deals because theres major risk if any one of them leaves and family tends to wear several different hats in the biz.

@PassuPeter Wait till you find out how many of those companies are sitting in continuation funds that they've been selling to themselves at markups

The amount of Clearlake and Platinum portcos with debt trading at stressed levels is astonishing

@paulg @pmarca Hundreds of VPs, associates and analysts along with the hundreds on their operations team. But you would know that if you actually read the page for more than 10 seconds. Or if you were speaking in good faith. How could you not understand how large funds work given your success?

@pmarca The really weird thing is that the whole company seems to be managing directors. I was curious who these people were so I looked at their "Team" page, and they have 52 managing directors. Who do they all manage? Each other?

Whoops, I take that back.

Had a great convo with @jjohnsonATX about his modern millennial country club concept in Austin. Waiting for him to build it and take my money.

@andrewglynch Unfortunately it's 5 years too late to the game. PE ravaged this space

If I was picking a vertical to do a roll up, I’d probably pick Managed Service Providers (MSPs) • still fragmented • contracted revenue • low-ish capex requirements • PE interest gives large exit opportunity

@Suhail What does @sundarpichai lose if he just tells the "safety" team to fuck off and let people iterate?

At brunch this weekend, friends were discussing what they were doing with their bonuses. Watches came up and someone asked why he should spend $20K on one watch when he could get 10 fakes for $500 each. I'm not a watch guy, but if these fakes are that good, why pay up?

Major lifestyle inflation moment for me. Im paying 50% more for a regular flight vs. a cheap redeye. Disgusted with myself.

I've realized I have no clue how to use Twitter and I'm 99% sure it won't help me with deal flow and diligence providers. Probably makes more sense to shut it down and quietly do the work

@SBA_Matthias When the hit rate on a quality deal is <1%, most people are never even going to start enough conversations with business owners to get something done.

Controversial viewpoint: Most searchers on Twitter won't end up buying a deal. They lack the grit and determination that it takes to make it happen.

@jd_foote Of course. Everything has risk. And I'm on the SMB side of the fence. But a W2 is an incredibly low risk proposition, particularly for white collar workers in an era of remote work.

@BearFunds It's good to point out that W2 has risks too, but yes

The fact that people think acquiring/starting your own business is less risky than a W2 is crazy. Good reminder that SMBTwitter still has a lot of noise that needs to be sifted through for signal

@jd_foote Tarrytown next to downtown and Barton Creek if you want to be further out

@BearFunds Yep, a lot for us to like about all of those... Any suggestions around Austin?

SMB Twitter: What's the 'best' SMB town? I'm considering a base in the USA because, well, it's the USA! We need: ✅Postcard pretty ✅Mild seasons ✅Business-friendly ✅Growing economy ✅Low-tax ✅Safe, friendly ✅Close to a biggish centre Where should I be looking??