Danny Vivier

My developing thesis: 1. $7 trillion of profitable small businesses will change hands in the next 25 years -- 👋🏻 bye Baby Boomers. 2. Virtually no one is focused on buying these sub $15 million businesses. Too big for an individual. Too small for private equity. 3. You can *still* buy these assets for 3-4x their annual profit. That's a ~30% year 1 return with no debt and no growth. 4. Most ambitious peers are trying to build the next billion-dollar company. There's a lack of sophisticated operators in this space. 5. Content is the flywheel. Sharing the journey publicly attracts proprietary deal flow, the right investors, and the best talent. To be clear: I am not the first to identify this opportunity. Folks like @BrentBeshore @awilkinson @SievaKozinsky @XavierHelgesen are way ahead of me. But hey - I think we're in the 2nd inning of a 9-inning game. There will be many winners.

@thubten Haven't been for a while, hoping to get back one day.

@itsDanny_V Are you still active on Twitter?

Every week I analyze hundreds of small businesses up for sale. 98% of them are garbage. In time, I've learned to quickly filter out the noise. Here are 7 simple questions to avoid wasting your time on a bad opportunity:

@stephenolmon Amazing - congrats to you both!

Married 11 years today. My most important partnership. Divorce throughout both sides of our family tree, thankfully have never used that word as an option for our relationship and plan to keep it that way. Lots of hard work, communication, and mutual sacrifice. Moments where we could have allowed conflict to become deep resentment but instead fought for peace and forgiveness. Far from perfect, but we feel confident we’re going the distance…all the way to wrinkles and grandkids.

@jspujji AI

All CRMs suck. They turn you into a data entry slave. + Leave a meeting: enter data. + Get an email: enter data. + Text on Slack: enter data. My friend is building an AI-based CRM that does it for you. RT & comment “AI” and I’ll DM you early access.

@QuilanFoster SMB

Interested in business acquisition? I've created a Notion database with the top online resources in the SMB community. I'll continue growing it over time. Just comment "SMB" and I'll send it to you by DM. (must be following or it won't send)

@jeremyyamaguchi Congrats Jeremy - excited to watch this unfold!

I have some news. I started a new venture, and we’re calling it Splash. We plan to acquire hundreds of small pool cleaning companies and build the first national brand in pool service. We raised a $4.5M pre-seed round led by Asymmetric alongside 40+ exceptional founder/CEOs. 👇 Why pools, you ask? Simple. The market is large, customers are recurring and sticky, and the competitive landscape is fragmented and low-tech. Most critically, there’s no dominant, national brand in pool cleaning and no law of nature that says there can’t be—so we're building one. We just completed our first acquisition in Southern California, with many more to come. Here’s our playbook: Step 1: Acquire hundreds of wonderful pool cleaning companies. Step 2: Build and integrate vertical software to boost margins, optimize routes, streamline operations, and elevate the customer experience. Step 3: Recycle cash flows generated from steps 1 and 2 to buy more amazing pool cleaning companies, and keep compounding for a decade. Over the last 10 years, the average unicorn raised $400M to get to $1.6B in enterprise value. Those days are over. The winners of the future are going to be companies that can reach multi-billion dollar outcomes, but do so in a capital efficient way. That is what we’re building at Splash. I’ve spent the last fifteen years building companies at the intersection of home services and tech, and plan to spend the next fifteen building a true juggernaut in this category. Thrilled to be partnering with incredible investors like @lessin, @awilkinson, @BiedermanRob, @rrhoover, @austen, @xavierhelgesen, @rahulvohra, @toddgoldberg, @kazanjy, and many others. Let’s get to it.

@collin_ruth89 SOP

If you have employees, you NEED Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Last year I had 2 full-time employees. Now I have 13. I had to create an EASY SYSTEM for training new employees. If you're interested in my SOP Creation Method, comment "SOP" below. (You'll receive a DM)

@CoFoundersNik More commercial... so working for hospitals to setup (and to a certain extent maintain) their security systems

@itsDanny_V Very interesting. In the senior space, families are using devices like Apple Watch or even AirTags to track loved ones with dementia and/or instant communication. Are you thinking of security to replace onsite caregivers?

I thought owning a Healthcare company would be a good investment But I didn't know we'd create $20.1 million of value in ~ 3 years If I were starting today, here are the top 10 Healthcare Businesses most likely to make you a Millionaire (according to me 😉)

@tomharari Looks great, Tom. Love the concept!

Working on new landing page for dewey and I'm obsessed with how it's coming together. Current draft. Still needs some more polishing.

@tomharari Big things ahead, Tom!

How I'm making the most of 2024: 1. Wake up early Nothing beats getting a jump start on the day. Drink coffee, tea, or even just a glass or two of water. Goal is to get up before the sun does.

@TheJacobTurner @TKopelman Excited for this. Congrats guys

🚨Exciting News 🚨 I am partnering with my friend and fellow advisor @TKopelman on the Long Game Podcast in 2024. The goal of this podcast is simple. Provide actionable insights for those looking to improve their financial lives.

@mitchell_sorkin Congrats man - big things ahead next year

This past week, while I was out in Southeast Asia, my incredible brother and business partner closed on our 9th acquisition. We’ve officially added another 20 locations and ~$6,000/mo in net. We paid $77,500 + a few grand in closing costs. The gold is always in the small deals, unfortunately. Starting in the new year, we will be deploying a new strategy, and I think it may significantly change the trajectory of our business. We will continue to work on the big deals (3 in the pipeline currently), but we’ll aggressively pursue the sub $100k routes. I’ll be releasing a 2024 roadmap at the end of the month. In the meantime, sending love to everyone during the holiday season from the Thai islands! Much love ❤️

@stephenolmon @TXAlarmGuy Love this business - excited to follow along 🙌🏻

Hey, I (we) bought a business! ———————————— Earlier this year I partnered with @TXAlarmGuy to acquire a 30+ year-old security, fire, and alarm co in Houston called Alarm Masters. We expect to achieve a multi-8 figure outcome in the future and I’m confident in our approach. Here’s the scoop: Why we love this industry 1) Experience and connections After we graduated from @TAMU, Collin spent time in the security industry @BrivoInc - while there, he learned a ton about the ecosystem, what owners need, and other key industry connections like brokers, owners, and attorneys. 2) Buyers view as non-discretionary I may choose to buy a gym membership, but if finances got tight I'd quickly cut it and not think twice. We find that people who make a buying decision for security / fire / alarm view this purchase as non-discretionary, which mitigates our risk in economic downturns and solidifies our LTV. 3) Recurring revenue takes the edge off PGs are scary and running multi-million dollar businesses can produce a lot of anxiety...but you know what helps? High gross margin, low-churn recurring revenue. And it's delicious. 4) Multiple expansion via aggregation I know you've heard this before, but spending time doing the dirty work of aggregating fragmented assets at the lower end of a market to then package and sell to institutional / strategic buyers can generate phenomenal returns. 5) Not dictated by new construction I can't tell you how many times new construction has been brought up in a negative context over the last two years. Being aligned to new construction is GREAT when we're in a risk-on, low interest rate environment. Everyone is building, and service providers can make bank! And when we aren't in that reality...hang on to your shorts. We do a ton of upgrading, replacement, and first-time installs...none of which are predicated on NC. ______________________ Our specific approach 1) Fire fest We love fire. The great thing about fire alarm accounts is that you're not only deriving the recurring monthly revenue, but are also getting service work attached to those accounts that are essentially guaranteed due to regulatory requirements. Sell once, invoice forever(ish) in multiple ways. I like that. We aren't *only growing via fire, but it's a strong focus. 2) Acquire fragmented RMR In this case, fragmented often translates to small and/or messy sets of accounts that PE won't stoop down to buy. But we will...because we know what game we're playing, and because it serves our long term goal. We have already completed one add-on that was below $10k RMR. It was a great test run for us, and it was a scenario that my friends in nice suits would have never even looked at. It was also off-market. Yay. Under LOI for another, larger set of contracts in our same market currently :) 3) Balance sheet + creative structures -> future acquisitions One resource we are rich in is time, so our plan is to grow our balance sheet to fund most acquisitions. We also have found that many owners in this industry are open-minded to more creative structures, so we'll be able to get some smaller deals done without significant capital outlay. 4) Grow organically via sophisticated omnichannel mktg Collin and I both have an extensive background in sales and marketing, including executing relatively detailed omni-channel campaigns. We aren't aware of many companies at our size even thinking about these strategies, so forecasting solid organic growth through these efforts feels justified. ______________________ How we financed the deal We financed this deal via the SBA, our own equity, and some gap equity from a Twitter friend. I would never make light of a personal guarantee, but the existing recurring revenues * standard valuation practices in this industry give me a lot of peace. And lastly, a funny story Literally on the *first morning we owned the business, two vans were broken into and thousands of dollars of equipment were stolen. I looked at Collin and said “Honestly I kind of love that that happened, welcome to SMB life”. If you want to keep up with our journey follow @TXAlarmGuy as he’ll be sharing details more frequently. Onward y'all.

@investing_law Fellow Bruin here! Also married a Bruin and now have a baby Bruin.

I got rejected from every Ivy League school I applied to for undergrad. I was sad. Went to UCLA instead. Amazing experience. For law school, I was admitted to multiple ivies and went to Columbia. I was so proud. Terrible experience. Humans are bad at knowing what will make them happy. Go Bruins 🐻

@stephenolmon @SievaKozinsky @XavierHelgesen @JoryCaulkins @jasonillian Nailed it. The typical buy, strip and flip model doesn't make a lot of sense when you think about it.

“Enduring” is the common goal of many people I respect You have @SievaKozinsky and @XavierHelgesen leading Enduring Ventures (not to mention a Twitter who’s who of LPs) @JoryCaulkins has had a lot of success running Enduring Companies out of Dallas And @jasonillian (formerly MD @ Koch) leads @HighmountCap who specifically states they are focused on creating enduring companies They’ve all likely had some notable 1-off wins, but they now all orient around this same concept. Why? My view is that it’s healthy, worthy, and defensible. Things that truly stand the test of time are very difficult to create and destroy. An enduring company can withstand uncertain economic conditions, shifting industry dynamics, and movements within key leadership. This *significantly informs my own pursuits.

@patrickdichter Tax guy sent me a Loom video walking through my returns in simple English

What’s something your accountant does that you love and place value on? Comment below, looking for feedback. I’ll go first - tax pro gave me options A and B with dollar impact of each in plain English and their recommendation.

@VinceBiegel Beautiful family, Vince. Nothing beats being a girl dad.

Florida Biegel’s 2023 🌴 Grateful to have my amazing family, my rock - my wife Sarah, and our two beautiful daughters by my side during these uncertain free agent times. Their unwavering support keeps me going. I’m beyond blessed to have these girls in my life. #Family #Blessed #GirlDad

@nathanbarry @ConvertKit Love this and will be adopting a similar strategy for our holding company. When you have real cash flow there's a lot you can do with it.

In 2021, Spotify reached out to buy @ConvertKit for hundreds of millions. I said no. Instead we came up with an innovative way to get liquidity for our team:

@_FinanceDad Clever! How long until she figured out your system?

@dylanpozeck Haha wouldn't put it past some of these brokers...

@itsDanny_V I think they mistyped and added an extra 2 0’s.

Broker sent me a CIM this week for a content business doing $450k in revenue and $150k in gross profit. Asking price: $6,500,000 Be careful out there folks...