Contrarian Thinking

This is the future of business education

A hard truth for aspiring business buyers: Waiting for the “perfect time” to build ownership... is how you guarantee you probably never will

@Codie_Sanchez @BizScout_ @bp22 @valor @seanrad @balajis LFG

I remember people laughing when we launched @BizScout_. Today we just announced a raise with @bp22 @valor @seanrad @balajis to make it just as easy to buy a small business as it is to buy a house. We’re building what should have existed 20 years ago: -Validated pricing on thousands of historical listings so you know what a business is worth -Off-market deal sourcing so you're not paying $30k for institutional-level deal tech -Buyer verification so brokers actually respond to you -Curated listings so you're not digging through junk And it's working. Since launch in 2024: -220+ businesses transacted -152,400+ total users -52,740+ buyer/seller connections -20,900+ active listings -Team of 34 And we're barely scratching the surface…Small-to-mid market M&A is a $150B+ industry. 75 million boomers retiring by 2030, many of them business owners, most of them with no succession plan. 40%+ want to sell in the next 5 years but have no idea how. That's not someone else's problem. That's ours to solve. We’re already the fasting growing online marketplace for buying and selling small businesses…and we are truly just getting started;) Thank you to my President @BobbyBizScout and thank you to our investors for helping us do what is right… Keep Main Street on Main Street.

Jesus Wong spent 16 years in corporate finance and accounting, then quit to go buy a $7M/yr business that repairs ripped ski jackets. Finding it took a while. He reviewed over 1,000 businesses for sale, signed 200 NDAs, read hundreds of financials, and submitted multiple offers before anything stuck. Then a broker he'd built a relationship with on a previous deal that fell through called him about something off-market - North America's largest technical garment repair company. They fix outdoor performance apparel for major brands' warranty programs. What he'd be walking into: > 85+ employees > 3 facilities across Calgary, Denver, and Philadelphia > B2B contracts with major outdoor apparel brands > Ski resort uniform maintenance on the side Jesus structured the deal with a seller note that has forgivable components if the business underperforms, plus a profit-share arrangement if it outperforms. $7M/year in recurring B2B revenue, and he's sitting in the middle of the circular economy wave where brands are under real pressure to repair products instead of tossing them. All thanks to a trusted broker relationship and a whole lot of deal reps.

Here's 1 life path we expect more young people will take in the coming years: > Instead of contorting themselves into a mortgage they can’t afford, they will rent and maintain flexibility. ‍ > They’ll focus on building income, maybe even getting married, and working to build ownership in a business rather than a home. ‍ > A business, they think, will give them things a house likely won’t: cash flow, skills, and potential job protection in a terrible labor market. ‍ > Because they’re renting, they also won’t have to worry about the added costs and responsibilities that come with homeownership. ‍ > For years, they will focus on pouring their energy into growing sales, improving operations, and paying down acquisition debt with profits. ‍ > Surplus cash flow will be saved or reinvested in their business, rather than into a home’s surprise roof leaks, insurance spikes, and constant maintenance. ‍ > Then, when the timing is better, they can choose to buy a home from a position of greater strength. ‍ > By that point, they may own a business with meaningful cash flow (potentially worth multiples more as a result of their work), along with valuable experience. If the old path was to buy a house, then build wealth, a new path might actually be the opposite: build wealth, then choose to buy a house if it makes sense for you. We don’t expect the younger generations to stop chasing home ownership. But they may decide to change what they try to own first.

The AI buildout creates massive opportunities for blue-collar business owners. There are just so many niches across the supply chain. Worth stepping back and thinking about.

The business buying journey, visualized:

Sam Altman in 2019: "Somehow or other, you need to own equity in something, instead of just selling your time. Time only scales linearly." Only getting truer.

If you own a business in home services, you're sitting on two distinct demand cycles: >One that's already compounding (aging stock) >One that's not yet arrived (new construction at scale) Rare position to be in.

Businesses bought by our members in recent months: >Locksmith >Landscaping >Pool cleaning >Electrical >Restoration >Auto Repair >Roofing >Handyman >Hydraulic hose repair

Amazing Q1 growth for this business owner:

TLDR: -Favorable terms for lenders, making it easier to get acquisition loans for manufacturing businesses -Favorable tax / depreciation treatment for owners of manufacturing businesses

AI... job security... over-staffing... it doesn't matter. It's never been a more important time to be an owner.

Understanding this simple formula can change your entire financial future:

Buying a business is HARD. No better feeling than celebrating our members when they become owners. Some recent wins:

Absolutely PACKED day with ~100 business owners in Austin. During our "Find Me the Money" exercise, we dig into the businesses to spot clear cost savings and growth levers. Chiropractors, roofing, martial arts, landscaping... Today, the owners in this room found $7M+

BIG day in Austin. We're hosting ~100 high-growth owners and operators from around the country who flew in for 3 days. They're going to help each other solve their biggest scaling problems and bottlenecks. The next few days are going to be so, so good.

Worth noting: 98% of U.S. manufacturers are small businesses. To reindustrialize America, you have to focus efforts there, not just on flashy unicorn startups.

The best small businesses of the future will operate on a barbell strategy. On one side: leverage AI to do what AI does best. Bring ruthless scale and speed. On the other side: become aggressively, inconveniently human. Show up in person. Send the note. Remember the name, send the flowers, call the phone. Do the thing that doesn't scale. The ones who figure out both ends of that barbell are gonna eat everyone else’s lunch.

PE chasing after the last family-owned porta-potty business in Bismarck North Dakota with no website

If you have a job right now: >Be grateful >Build AI skills and work on side projects >Network before you need it >Save aggressively >Fight like hell to build ownership in assets