Paul Quirk

Here's the acquisition entrepreneurship lifecycle. Ready? In 2018 when I published Buy Then Build the big contrarian idea it contained was that entrepreneurs could buy existing companies, along with revenue, infrastructure, and earnings, rather than start companies from scratch. I of course, had been doing this for 12 years leading up to the release after my own startup struggles seemed to anchor in the fact that entrepreneurship was defined by Silicon Valley, rather than the practice of quiet, but successful entrepreneurs all around me in the Midwest. In my mind the best version of success for Buy Then Build would be that the idea of starting with acquisitionwould be adopted into the minds of practicing entrepreneurs, and expand the definition of what it means to be an entrepreneur. Of course, this is also based in the understanding that acquiring existing businesses often has a significantly higher success rate than starting from scratch, and is ridiculously easier to finance, allowing for more equity to the entrepreneur. However, operating a business, whether it be pre-existing, publicly traded, or start from scratch is a hard task. It’s scrappy, sweaty, uncomfortable. The biggest risk I saw was that readers were going to assume that buying an existing company meant it was easier to operate. Nope. Well, in some cases, sure, but the problem that acquisition solves for is the overly tricky and wrought with failure starting up process. I predicted at that time that the timeline would go like this: · Acquisition entrepreneurship would be adopted by entrepreneurs as the realization of how many quiet entrepreneurs are succeeding. · Social media influencers would pump it and invite many unqualified people to make the leap. · At the beginning, the craze would pump in popularity as success spread and even unqualified candidates had early wins. · Prospective buyers would then want to scale AE, deciding that they wanted to acquire a portfolio of small businesses. · Some businesses would start failing as the realization came that this is actually hard. · Social media would start talking about how Buy Then Build is misleading because it leaves out operating (again, not the problem the book solves for). · The world would laugh at acquisition as a practice that got many unexpecting people in trouble financially. · The quiet entrepreneurs would of course continue to succeed, and at greater rate. · Acquisition would then grow in popularity and finally become appropriately weighted in the definition of entrepreneurship—much like the internet after the tech bust or Bitcoin in 2025. Where do you think we are in this cycle?

Who is following this scandal regarding improper allegations of fraudulence in the UK postal service? I’m going to write a thread on it , if enough people are interested.

Finance and accounting departments rarely get the credit. But behind every wildly successful business is a talented accounting/finance team. Every time.