17 Jul Acquiring Minds: From Searcher to Sponsor: How to Buy a $22M Business
Today’s guest was looking for the standard target of a self-funded searcher, $750k to $1.5m in SDE. When he first learned about the business he would go on to buy, the seller characterized it as “north of $1m in EBITDA.” Check! It was a fit. Well after going onsite and falling in love with the business, our hero Yan Vinarskiy learned that in fact the business was closer to $4m in EBITDA. At first Yan was deflated, recognizing it as a far larger business than an SBA loan could approach, even with pari passu debt. But then he had a call with Niklas James, my own partner in Minds Capital. Niklas, a veteran of the independent sponsor world and himself a sponsor, said, “Yan, I think is an independent sponsor deal.” That 30-minute call changed the trajectory of Yan’s journey to buy a business. And today he is an independent sponsor having bought that very business, Floorguard, a Chicago-based manufacturer of floor coating solutions. So today’s interview will teach you how to acquire a much larger business, should you happen to find one, using the independent sponsor model. Yan’s story is a wonderful case study; I am thrilled to bring it to you. Here he is, Yan Vinarskiy, CEO of Floorguard.
