In this episode, we welcomed Nick Patrick, the Managing Partner at Coda Capital, to discuss his journey from corporate America to purchasing his first business, a catering and wedding venture. The conversation delved into the nuances of transitioning from buyer to seller, exploring the ecosystem, pros, and cons of the catering industry.
This episode highlights the unconventional path Patrick took in acquiring the business, which wasn’t the conventional ARR model but relied on strategic thinking and operational expertise. The discussion also touched on the significance of structuring deals with sellers, identifying win-win scenarios, and the mindset of not being wedded to a business indefinitely, as Patrick eventually sold the venture to pursue other opportunities.
Overall, the episode provided valuable insights into entrepreneurship, deal-making, and strategic exits.
Time Stamps:
Get in touch with Nick Patrick at nickpatrick3@gmail.com
- Access our archive of video interviews on YouTube
- Get in touch with show hosts Casey Minshew and Feras Moussa at – info@equitylaunchpad.com
- Looking to invest in M&A opportunities or partner with an advisor to acquire, scale or sell your business? Visit Equity Launchpad
- Our next M&A Launchpad Conference will be announced later this year. Stay tuned!
Additional Resources:
- Access our archive of video interviews on YouTube
- Checkout our upcoming Conference – https://malaunchpad.com/
- Get in touch with show hosts Casey Minshew and Feras Moussa at – info@equitylaunchpad.com
- Looking to invest in M&A opportunities or partner with an advisor to acquire, scale or sell your business? Visit Equity Launchpad
Transcript
00:00 all right on today’s episode we
00:01 interviewed Nick Patrick who’s the
00:03 managing partner at Kota capital on this
00:05 episode we focused on really kind of
00:07 moving from Corporate America into just
00:09 buying your own first business and what
00:11 business better than a catering and
00:13 wedding business so we talked a lot
00:15 about just kind of what that what that
00:17 ecosystem looks like you know pros and
00:19 cons of that business and then
00:20 ultimately what it look like to go from
00:22 buyer to seller and then kind of what’s
00:24 next for Patrick and Nick so Casey what
00:26 were some of your takeaways yeah I I
00:28 think for the the person that’s dialing
00:29 in right now to listen this one uh is
01:32 very good and easy to follow on the
01:34 steps that somebody makes from buying
01:36 the business right it wasn’t the perfect
01:38 one that he thought it was going to be
01:40 but he made a great connection with the
01:41 sellers he saw potential upside he
01:44 didn’t have to bring a lot of cash so he
01:46 looked the risk I mean it was very
01:48 different than the hey this is the the
01:50 ARR model that I must follow right he
01:52 really thought about it in a lot of
01:54 different ways and then how he executed
01:57 and then he got a chance to exit which
01:59 is just a story um all in itself yeah no
01:03 I agree and I think one of the nice
01:04 things about this what he did is not
01:06 easy but it was a great first business
01:09 right low risk for him had the
01:11 operational chops to work through it
01:13 made a good exit and then again we
01:15 talked through on this episode just kind
01:16 of how he structured with the sellers
01:17 how he got a motivated seller right what
01:19 were they looking for what was he
01:21 looking for and how to create win-win
01:22 scenarios and then again how to operate
01:24 that effectively to get him out of the
01:26 business from being in the business and
01:28 then kind of going on to that exit and
02:30 what I liked also is that that that
02:31 mindset where he wasn’t just married to
02:33 the business you know like people buy
02:35 these companies and they’re like man
02:36 this is it I’m G to hold this one
02:38 forever he looked at the market he made
02:40 a determination that he just was not g
02:42 be able to do what he wanted to do so
02:43 then what did he do he turned around and
02:44 he sold yeah I I love that awesome so
02:47 listen into this one and there’ll be
02:49 lots of valuable
02:54 information all right on today’s episode
02:56 we have Nick Patrick with Kota Capital
02:58 Nick welcome to the show hey thanks for
02:01 having me EXC all the way from Denver
02:04 and currently nomading around it sounds
02:07 like Northwestern United States is that
02:08 right exactly right yeah all right so
02:11 before we get into what you’re doing
02:12 today maybe kind of let’s go back a
02:13 little bit in time so maybe you want to
02:15 give listeners a little bit a little bit
02:17 of backer on yourself right what did you
02:18 do beforehand and then kind of how’ you
02:20 start getting into an a space yeah um my
02:24 first job out of college was entry level
02:27 uh at Fidelity Investments and um
02:30 basically worked my way up uh to
03:32 different roles and then was ultimately
03:34 a financial adviser um before moving
03:36 into the you know entrepreneurship
03:38 through acquisition okay maybe question
03:40 on the financial adviser because I’ve
03:42 always wondered how did you feel being a
03:44 financial adviser for people that were
03:46 much more wealthy right did you feel
03:47 like you you know was there good
03:49 processes in place from the Fidelity
03:50 side where they could coach up people on
03:52 how to invest their money or did you
03:54 feel like you know what you’re just kind
03:56 of going down a script but this person
03:57 probably is not the person you should be
03:00 coaching yeah Fidelity Investments has
03:02 an incredible job it’s super structured
03:05 they want you to improve um so yeah I
03:08 was talking to people more than double
03:09 my age and 10 times 20 times thousand
03:13 times my net worth but was super
03:15 confident in that the advice I was
03:16 giving was applicable and you know the
03:18 right advice and was going to set them
03:20 up for
03:21 Success so I imagine having those
03:23 conversations to speaking to those
03:25 people helped you out in your search
03:26 process too talking to a business owner
03:28 I mean gave you that ability to have
03:30 confidence to have the the financial
04:32 conversation 100% yeah and just how to
04:35 connect with someone you know a lot of
04:36 this is relationship based and so if you
04:38 can ask the right questions and listen
04:40 to someone you you can build trust and
04:43 um you know that’s even more important
04:44 in buying a business and um yeah
04:47 transacting got it so then what led you
04:49 to start to maybe go look for a business
04:51 to buy right was it just the clients you
04:53 interact with and realizing hey most of
04:55 these really wealthy guys have a
04:56 business is kind of their source of
04:57 income versus a W2 or what was that
04:59 segue
04:00 yeah the segue was I’ve been
04:02 entrepreneuring my whole life you always
04:03 doing the side hustle side gigs um and
04:07 while everything was great you know in
04:08 the financial services space um it’s
04:11 pretty redundant you know at the end of
04:12 the day so uh I wanted something where I
04:16 could kind of feed that entrepreneurial
04:18 bug and buying a successful business
04:20 seemed like the highest likelihood
04:21 chance of not having to go back to uh
04:24 you know working for the man all right
04:27 very exciting so talk to us a little bit
04:29 about that search like when when did it
05:31 start how did you find the business talk
05:34 talk to us through that process did you
05:35 had you left your W2 or you know did you
05:37 do them in tandem yeah so I had set a
05:42 specific quit date I was living in
05:43 California at the time so I was going to
05:45 move back to Denver you know where all
05:46 my um family friends um were and so I
05:51 had been basically just using time while
05:53 I was still working to learn everything
05:55 I can network with everyone I can um and
05:58 had started looking at broker deals
05:01 and I didn’t I had to quit my job well
05:03 before my quit date because I found the
05:05 business that I uh ultimately ended up
05:07 acquiring and operating got it and so
05:10 it’s part of the close you basically
05:11 that same month or same week you
05:13 basically put in your notice and left
05:16 that company immediately yeah I was
05:18 under Loi so I was like oh no all right
05:23 we gota we gotta quit so put in my two
05:25 weeks or put in four weeks he’s like you
05:27 know you’re not going to be producing
05:28 for those four weeks two weeks get out
05:29 of here loaded up the 4Runner all my
06:32 stuff um drove back to to Colorado then
06:37 I actually lived on site of the wedding
06:40 venue there’s a little cabin out back um
06:42 former Ranger cabin and uh was living on
06:45 site for 30 days of due diligence W nice
06:49 nice so for those listeners what was the
06:50 business yeah what’s kind of the
06:52 backstory to in terms of like how you
06:53 found this specific one yep uh the
06:56 business was a wedding venue and then a
06:60 uh primarily wedding catering company so
06:02 kind of two
06:03 businesses and um backstory on how I
06:07 originally had seen this um listed
06:10 probably six months before I
06:12 closed numbers looked good uh multiple
06:15 looked good but I like I don’t want to
06:17 do Hospitality I don’t want to be in a
06:19 you know sleepy little mountain town um
06:22 so I immediately passed and then the
06:24 broker actually circled back with me the
06:26 timing was right of hey I’ll talk to
06:28 owners uh and she suggested it so I did
07:31 and um eventually uncovered like hey
07:35 this is a great business great people
07:37 that run it great reviews and they’re
07:39 they’re doing a good job it just needs
07:41 some of the things that you would make
07:42 it more
07:43 markable how long have they been running
07:45 the business part you uh in what year
07:47 also did you buy it I bought this let’s
07:51 see the beginning of
07:53 20
07:55 22 and they had been running it since
07:59 1991 so it was the same age as me wow
07:03 all right cool story yeah so that means
07:05 we can ask about uh the co situation so
07:07 you’re going through the the the
07:08 conversation with the broker and did you
07:12 immediately see things like low-lying
07:14 fruit that you could you just knew like
07:16 man if I can take this on and these are
07:18 the things I can do or was it more like
07:20 hey I like the people I like the concept
07:23 I like where I’m at so this is what was
07:26 that deciding point for you yeah I mean
07:29 so it had know incredible reviews and
08:32 you know lower prices than any other
08:35 catering company around kind of a
08:37 natural mode you know there’s not
08:38 another catering company within you know
08:40 45 minutes and it’s in a destination
08:44 wedding location so I like those aspects
08:48 um and yeah I didn’t go in there and say
08:51 hey I there’s huge things that I can do
08:53 but you know get a better website uh the
08:56 wedding venue was having you know just a
08:58 handful of weddings a year and said why
08:60 aren’t we booking this you know as much
08:02 as we possibly can so there were some
08:04 low hanging fruit but uh they’ve been
08:06 successful with how they had run it and
08:09 so I didn’t want to you know really
08:10 change too much until I got a good feel
08:12 for just how to operate it yeah that’s a
08:14 question I mean was there concerns right
08:15 just getting into Hospitality just
08:17 seeing a what happened with covid and
08:19 then B you’re also getting into the food
08:21 business in some ways yeah right those
08:23 are really both of those are almost
08:25 things that are on our like verticals
08:27 that we don’t want to enter they’re
08:28 challenges right yeah kind of the
08:30 thought process there or did you just
09:31 not know any better and you’re like you
09:33 know what these look good and you just
09:34 kind of were in with it yeah I wanted
09:36 nothing to do with hospitality and I
09:37 want nothing to do with food like both
09:39 of you um what what made this attractive
09:43 was you know versus a restaurant we’re
09:46 booking this six 12 months out um and
09:49 we’re taking money ahead of time so you
09:52 can be much more strategic with your
09:54 toing for food and exactly how many
09:57 meals you need to prepare so some of
09:59 that may it a little bit more attractive
09:02 um but more in terms of how we ended up
09:04 structuring the acquisition I was able
09:05 to reduce risk um to where uh I was
09:10 confident that even if it blew up um you
09:13 know it’s not my entire life savings on
09:16 the line and that was also part that got
09:18 me comfortable of going into an industry
09:20 I originally didn’t have any interest in
09:23 so what was that how so talk to you was
09:25 the risk analysis yeah so once we
09:28 started getting into
09:30 um or once I identified hey maybe this
10:33 is something that I should pursue um so
10:35 we went up you know met the owners
10:37 toured the venue um started building
10:39 that relationship and then kind of
10:41 talked about or the broker had shared
10:43 you’re going to put this business you
10:45 know out of business if they don’t sell
10:46 it you know later this year um so a
10:49 little lightball in my head of like hey
10:51 you know this could be a win-win for
10:52 everyone sellers exactly very very
10:54 motivated and you know I was going to
10:56 still pay them rent for the venue um you
10:59 know
10:60 and that’s where the idea of you know
10:01 seller financed um loan came up you know
10:04 I was like I don’t know that I could get
10:06 the SBA loan because I have zero
10:08 experience with weddings is you know
10:10 minimal hos uh experience um in the
10:13 hospitality
10:14 industry um and so as we started talking
10:17 about seller finance and we started
10:19 talking about um hey there’s you know
10:22 quarter million you know 300 $400,000 in
10:25 deposits in the bank those will also
10:27 transfer with the sale you know there’s
10:29 million dollars of future booked Revenue
11:32 um all of those things came together and
11:35 said hey you know we have a lot of
11:37 aspects that there’s still gonna be
11:38 money coming in the door no matter what
11:40 you know the rest of this year at least
11:42 so they trusted you you come off as a
11:43 trustworthy guy so there was a lot of
11:46 there had to be a lot of trust when when
11:48 you’re going through that process right
11:50 huge amount and that’s you know really
11:52 and what I’m focusing on now as I’m
11:54 trying to acquire another business is um
11:56 building a relationship building trust
11:59 um because at the end of day you know
11:01 they’re trusting me and um you know I’m
11:03 trusting them and so that relationship
11:06 is is absolutely Paramount uh at least
11:09 in my opinion yeah and that’s what makes
11:10 a space different than real estate right
11:12 real estate’s very transactional this
11:14 space I mean people don’t sell a lot of
11:16 businesses in their lifetime right they
11:17 sell one two three typically you know
11:20 really usually the number is one so
11:22 there’s a lot of there’s a lot of
11:23 emotion with it a lot of attachment to
11:25 it and on The Bu side that’s what makes
11:27 it fun you can get really creative on
11:29 structuring structure things that you
12:31 could never do in probably other you
12:33 know any other vertical or other
12:34 businesses and so getting to know the
12:36 seller allows for more creative things
12:38 that you can make the win-win situation
12:40 and it’s not about one person getting
12:41 you know the short end of the stick it’s
12:43 about how do both sides get what they
12:45 want out of it and everybody walks them
12:46 happy so we just had that conversation I
12:48 mean we were talking about a project
12:50 that we’re working on and feris threw
12:52 out an idea and I first was like no it
12:54 ain’t gonna work and then I was like
12:55 well hold on maybe that will work you
12:58 know it’s like but if you were in one
12:60 little person’s getting 95% in what they
12:02 want and that 5% can really make it more
12:04 you know impactful for us on the buy
12:06 side very true yeah so so maybe you know
12:11 so for this one right what was the
12:13 purchase price you know what was the
12:15 equity brought what was the structure
12:16 you did you know what’ you proposing
12:18 that they run with it up front or was it
12:19 a little bit of negotiation back and
12:20 forth yeah um
12:23 so it was there was a purchase price and
12:26 then the seller was asking for
12:28 percentage of the future bucked rapid so
12:29 that came out to about um $400,000 as a
13:33 purchase price um the a the husband wife
13:37 team um so they were bringing in about
13:41 $440,000 um obviously that’s a lot less
13:43 because I’m going to have to hire chefs
13:44 I’m going to have to hire you know
13:46 operations
13:47 manager um and then uh I put $20,000
13:53 down as a you know deposit with the LOI
13:56 and escrow and then at closes
13:01 um it was structured where it was 30%
13:05 down which would come out of the
13:07 deposits and then um the owners would
13:10 carry 70% of that loan nice so you need
13:13 120k total to buy the business they sell
13:16 or Finance the rest of it and you knew
13:19 up front that you already had a year of
13:20 cash flows anyways right baked into just
13:22 their feature bookings correct and yeah
13:25 it was only 20 grand out of my pocket
13:27 and then that remainder that you know1
13:29 ,000 or so um that would be deducted
14:32 from the deposits for the future booked
14:35 events got it so really that just kind
14:37 of came out of the networking Capital so
14:38 to speak right one way to look at it
14:41 very cool okay very 20K get in so okay
14:44 so then and you felt like sellers that’s
14:47 what you proposed or that’s where yall
14:49 landed uh I kind of I started with I
14:52 don’t really want to go down this path
14:53 unless it’s going to be under Finance so
14:55 I kind of floated that idea of like hey
14:57 if I can’t get an SBA loan like other
14:59 options you know should we consider to
14:01 the broker um and then they you came
14:05 back with you know they’d be open to the
14:07 the seller financing so the conditions I
14:10 proposed and there’s a few other things
14:12 that put in there um but they basically
14:14 accepted and I accepted the purchase
14:16 price at face value because I thought it
14:18 was very reasonable nice got it so then
14:22 you think they walked home happy as well
14:23 right so when win yeah yeah I mean they
14:26 yeah it was very significant income that
14:29 they got to take then you when I sold
15:31 the business and then also you know the
15:33 recurring income of the the rental of
15:35 the property too okay so then maybe move
15:38 on so you know you buy the business then
15:40 what happened right day one what do that
15:42 look like you show up put your feet on
15:44 the table and say hey there’s a new
15:45 sheriff in town or you know what was
15:46 kind of the first set of initiatives
15:48 that you put into place to start to get
15:49 the business yeah where you needed it do
15:51 you have 100 day did you have a 100 day
15:53 game plan I mean like we all read books
15:55 we all have strategies you know it’s
15:56 like what’s yours yeah my strategy
15:60 started before closing um because the
15:02 head chef and really the only chef at
15:04 that time was one of the owners so he
15:06 was leaving and so I had written in you
15:10 know like hey we got four weeks of
15:12 training U or actually it may have been
15:14 four weeks and another four weeks at
15:16 50% um and then I could pay the the chef
15:20 if I needed to so number one was I got
15:22 to hire chefs uh and so that’s what I
15:24 did I hired two um chefs you know made
15:28 the offer before I even closed
15:30 with the start date on the closing date
16:33 uh just to get them training from the
16:34 old chef and get two people in there in
16:36 case something happens that you know two
16:37 people have that knowledge um so the
16:40 game plan was really just to get in
16:42 there and stabilize this thing because a
16:44 lot of processes need to be written down
16:46 a lot of information need to be
16:48 transferred that wasn’t written down
16:49 from the former owners so getting um
16:53 yeah processes written down uh no more
16:56 time sheets you know manually with pen
16:58 and paper
16:60 and it just try to get this thing in a
16:01 way where it’s more repeatable um before
16:04 any you know optimizations or anything
16:06 like that so how long did that take
16:08 before you started doing some
16:10 optimization um I immediately switched
16:13 Staffing day one so that was the first
16:16 optimization of people can clock in
16:18 clock out on their phones sign up for
16:20 shifts on their phones integrate with
16:22 you know their calendar um beyond that
16:26 it took you know probably about two to
16:27 three months before I could hire and you
16:30 know operations manager to take some of
17:32 my workload off and then I could spend
17:34 more time um you know working on the
17:37 business and so maybe you know let me
17:39 ask you this maybe about 90 days into
17:42 the business how were you feeling we
17:44 were like hey man this is a great buy or
17:47 were you in the muck of it and you’re
17:48 like man what was I thinking you know
17:50 what was kind of the thought process
17:52 right or how quickly on did you realize
17:53 you’re H something well the numbers look
17:56 good I was like okay we’re cash flowing
17:57 from day one um the emotional sign is
17:00 something that I feel like isn’t you
17:02 know talked about enough in this space I
17:05 I totally had feelings of you know I’m
17:07 working 12 hours a day this is super
17:08 cool but also what did I just do what
17:10 did I sign myself up for um and and a
17:14 lot of people make the mistake right
17:15 like especially with franchises they’re
17:16 signing up for a job and you know a lot
17:18 of franchises that don’t perform those
17:20 people are having to work at themselves
17:21 because they can’t afford to hire anyone
17:23 so they’re spending 10 years to try to
17:25 just get out of the debt that they’re in
17:27 buying into that franchise and getting
17:29 alone and it’s it’s it’s a kind of sad
18:31 right so absolutely yeah so I
18:35 was yeah I was excited I was working so
18:38 much I didn’t even have time for
18:39 emotions for the first like you know
18:41 three months and then uh could could
18:43 reel back so high highs and low lows uh
18:45 I think it would just describe
18:47 entrepreneurship in general um so is
18:50 your wife supportive I mean was she
18:52 involved in any way or was are you just
18:54 she said this is yours go do it yeah she
18:57 would come up um since she was living in
18:60 Denver at the time she’d come up you
18:01 spend weekends with me you know knew all
18:03 the staff um but it was definitely
18:05 something that was you know I was in
18:06 there it was my job and she was working
18:08 her job so very supportive she was also
18:12 uh a good one to start pushing me to say
18:15 Nick you’re only working in the business
18:18 um you know starting to impact a little
18:20 bit of our relationship so she was
18:21 really good about hey you need to start
18:23 spending some more time down in Denver
18:25 um and get yourself out of you know the
18:26 day-to-day operations and make this more
18:29 repeatable um so really supportive in
19:31 that regard so I take it that operations
19:33 manager must have been really been a
19:35 game changer for you huh yeah huge
19:38 because she was a former wedding planner
19:40 so she was good with organization and
19:42 really was the the glue between sales
19:45 person between you know the the chefs
19:49 and um yeah just kind of logistics prior
19:52 to uh the weddings so I would imagine
19:55 that like so you’ve got so you bring her
19:57 on she probably wasn’t she wasn’t cheap
19:60 right so you you probably paid her
19:01 pretty good so you do you do you say hey
19:05 I’m going to take less to bring her on I
19:07 mean what what was that way of Traina
19:09 thought of how you were looking at
19:11 it I looked at it of hey you know
19:14 there’s roughly
19:17 $440,000 of you know money to play with
19:22 you know on a yearly basis just looking
19:23 at the historicals and then I’m just
19:25 going to kind of in my mind chunk off
19:28 like pieces of that for chefs you know
20:31 for the operations manager the idea
20:34 being that still G to have a buffer you
20:36 know I was paying myself very minimal um
20:38 and just trying to run things you know
20:40 as lean as possible um till I got really
20:43 comfortable with you know the actual
20:45 financials to be having to take money
20:47 out that that wasn’t the goal for the
20:49 first year you know first year was just
20:51 run this thing don’t screw up anyone’s
20:54 wedding uh number one goal and then uh
20:57 we can work on you know things from
20:60 there that’s pretty fantastic and so
20:02 then maybe you know fast forward
20:05 right what I guess what did you grow the
20:07 business to and at what point in time
20:09 did you decide hey I should make an exit
20:11 right then what you know what led you
20:12 down that path did you reach out to a
20:14 broker did you find someone in the space
20:15 that you knew or company that you knew
20:17 that was a good candidate that you
20:18 reached out to yeah um good question so
20:21 a few different pieces there it was
20:24 doing um close to a million dollars in
20:27 Revenue um when I uh acquired it okay so
21:32 my goal is hey if I can get this thing
21:34 to um $2 million in revenue and have a
21:37 really high quality business and enough
21:39 where you can get the general manager in
21:42 there and you kind of start to back off
21:44 a bit um so we grew it 20%
21:48 year-over-year so the kind of the last
21:50 12 months before I exited was um $1.4
21:54 million in Revenue
21:56 roughly
21:57 um I realized pretty quick as you know
21:01 you build relationships with all the the
21:03 really high-end wedding venues where we
21:04 were catering that we had a very
21:08 significant portion of the the market
21:10 share I’d say of the um weddings that we
21:13 were allowed to cater at we were
21:15 probably had about 40% of that market
21:18 share and so it became apparent to me
21:21 that it was going to be really tough to
21:22 get to that 2 million Revenue Mark and I
21:26 wanted to keep growing it uh you know I
21:28 wasn’t cool just hanging out and you
22:30 know status quo so that’s where my mind
22:33 started to go hey maybe you know use
22:35 this as a learning opportunity you know
22:37 we’ve done some incredible things here
22:39 and then move to um you know my next
22:42 acquisition and and go for something
22:44 that you know I can grow and um yeah hit
22:47 some of those those goals and things
22:49 that excite me got it I mean yeah
22:51 because to grow from one to two and if
22:52 you’re at 40% you need to get 80% of
22:54 market share which it’s is hard right so
22:57 yeah I don’t I don’t know if that’s
22:00 possible yeah okay so did you did you
22:03 get a buy did you get somebody on the
22:05 SES side to help you sell your business
22:06 or did you have some relationships
22:08 already that had kind of come come
22:09 across your path two-part question I
22:12 thought I could sell it myself so I
22:14 started just reaching out to all the
22:16 different catering companies um in the
22:18 area I think I I may reached out to 10
22:22 or 12 people uh I got probably six ndas
22:25 back one really good conversation with a
22:28 a guy who had a bigger considerably
23:31 bigger catering company um was really
23:33 interested in acquiring um both the
23:36 venue and the the catering company and
23:38 but he was you know he’s a chef he’
23:40 never bought a company before um and so
23:43 I spent about two
23:45 months um with this with this person um
23:50 and you know that we’re going to buy
23:51 your business
23:53 100% chance and then we get uh you know
23:57 wouldn’t sign an Loi
23:59 um comes and does an inspection of the
23:01 property and says hey I got to talk to
23:03 your um employees before we sign an Loi
23:06 and I this is a waste of my time
23:10 right so I ultimately ended up listing
23:13 with a broker which was the right move
23:15 um you know given um yeah just given
23:19 what I’ve been through and um you just
23:21 kind of the nature of the business cool
23:23 how long did that process take before
23:25 you had before you got it
23:26 done from listing with a broker
23:30 to the closing date I think about 60
24:33 days wow I don’t know fast really nice
24:36 so whenever the broke Len with the
24:37 broker I mean was the valuation what you
24:38 thought it was or you know they had to
24:40 kind of educate you and maybe get you
24:42 some usually a lot of times business
24:43 owners think their business worth more
24:44 than it is so how did that conversation
24:47 I listed it pretty attractively and
24:49 ended up selling at a price that was
24:51 higher than what we had negotiated with
24:54 the the other catering company um so it
24:57 it worked out well you know given I got
24:59 to pay a commission of course to sell
24:01 uhuh it sounds like it’s money well
24:03 spent and so what did you ultimately so
24:05 two things the the seller finance that
24:07 you had in there how long was that for
24:10 yeah so it was um advertised over 10
24:13 years with a foure below okay so that
24:17 service was very reasonable and he sold
24:19 it year three anyways right somewhere on
24:21 there yep okay so we paid that all off
24:24 at that point of course and then how
24:26 many I guess maybe for once you had the
24:28 broker involved how many buyers did they
25:30 actually bring how many of them did DD
25:33 and you know who ended up or what you
25:35 know what they end up buying it for the
25:36 end of the day and kind of how’ you feel
25:38 about that after that transaction yeah
25:40 we um so we at 900,000 uh we had I don’t
25:44 know maybe 20 interested people fill out
25:48 ndas um first tour was with the the
25:52 family office who ultimately ended up
25:54 buying it so they came in toured talked
25:56 to me had some questions
25:59 um and then presented in Loi pretty
25:02 quick turnaround after that that tour um
25:05 I was really impressed with them you
25:06 know they had uh a number of other ancel
25:10 businesses another wedding venue didn’t
25:12 have catering they had a flower company
25:15 um and uh they felt like they’d really
25:18 take care of you know the employees and
25:21 um you know everything that I had built
25:23 and even offer you know some more
25:25 benefits you know with their shared
25:26 services things like that that I you
25:28 couldn’t couldn’t quite offer to the
26:30 employees pretty amazing man what a cool
26:33 story so one of the things we talked
26:35 about at the very beginning when we were
26:36 all kind of chatting offline you know
26:38 you talked about some of the things that
26:40 that you wanted to like that you do when
26:43 you’re working with a seller or when
26:46 you’re managing employees kind of talk a
26:48 little bit about that that side for you
26:50 know really our listeners to know what
26:51 are those things that help you be you
26:53 know create that success that you you
26:55 create with your people and the people
26:56 around you definitely yeah I mean with a
26:59 uh you know somebody who’s selling their
26:60 business it’s just listening to them
26:02 connecting what’s important to you you
26:05 know how involved do you still want to
26:07 be for example the former sellers uh
26:10 she’d come up and work events just cuz
26:12 hey she still wanted to be around the
26:13 you know people at the wedings you know
26:15 had a lot of connections uh I was
26:17 totally cool with that everyone loved
26:18 that um so um that would be an aspect
26:22 and then yeah once you was hiring people
26:25 um you know getting people who were you
26:28 know authentically excited to be there
27:31 and you could kind of figure that out of
27:32 hey this is more than just a job you
27:34 know you’re joining um a company that is
27:37 a little different than every other
27:38 company in town so we were you know very
27:41 confident that hey we have the best food
27:43 you know in the city uh we’re going to
27:45 put on the absolute best weddings you
27:47 we’d all say this and um you we’d all
27:50 believe it and so people were empowered
27:52 to make decisions you know who who um
27:55 worked there and uh it brought like a
27:59 level of you know excitement and
27:00 happiness that all of our clients would
27:02 also feel and that was something special
27:04 and so I look to you repeat that with um
27:07 business number two um you know
27:10 hopefully this year very exciting yeah I
27:12 mean building relationship with your
27:13 seller is key and building relationship
27:15 with a team is just as key and so
27:16 whenever you were on the sales side
27:19 right was there horse trading going on
27:22 with the family office that bought it
27:23 did they ask you to sell or carry
27:24 anything or was it pretty kind of
27:26 vanilla transaction yeah they were very
28:31 straightforward cash offer you know they
28:34 offered you know
28:35 $800,000 um and uh yeah they didn’t do
28:39 anything they were you know stand up
28:42 people the whole way through they wanted
28:43 to get the deal done and that just gave
28:45 me that much more confidence of hey
28:47 they’re not you know doing anything
28:49 silly or you know anything that um gave
28:51 me pause got it and did your sellers
28:54 that you sound sounded like they stuck
28:56 around here and there the people that
28:58 you bought it from they know we sold the
28:59 business and what it sold for and how
28:01 you know were they impressed they feel
28:03 like they left money on the table I mean
28:05 obviously took a few years to go build
28:06 that Equity right didn’t build itself
28:08 but was there a reaction there it’s
28:09 always kind of interesting to hear you
28:11 know as a seller right like knowing what
28:13 happened after kid after the at the end
28:15 of the movie man he doubl
28:18 this U so I I shared you know especially
28:21 the first time around um I shared hey
28:24 this is you know going to be the
28:25 purchase price and um you know they were
28:28 they were perfectly okay with it um you
29:32 know they were going to get their seller
29:33 note paid off so they were going to get
29:35 a big check and that reduces risk for
29:36 them um and then you know that when they
29:39 originally sold the business broker said
29:41 hey you know get get your husband out of
29:44 the kitchen you know replace yourselves
29:46 you know the business broker tried to
29:47 coach them on how to maximize the value
29:51 of the company for sale they didn’t do
29:53 any of that so I think it was pretty
29:55 clear that you know the value that I had
29:57 provided um you know increased the
29:00 Enterprise value of the company as a
29:02 whole so I think everyone was happy at
29:05 the end of the day um that it was
29:07 associated with the the transaction
29:09 again okay awesome so so you you know
29:12 you got out of that business right
29:14 what’s next I mean you know are you
29:17 actively buying have you really
29:18 sharpened up your thesis a little bit
29:19 into what you want to buy you know how
29:22 do you kind of move on from where you
29:23 where you were there yeah yeah so it was
29:27 a little weird not working for the first
29:29 time in my life after that took some
30:31 getting used to and but for the last two
30:33 months I’ve been you know actively
30:35 searching for the next business um so
30:38 focusing in the Denver area basically 40
30:40 mile radius um I want to go for the same
30:43 thing more even I’d almost argue more
30:45 important than the industry is going to
30:47 be the relationship you know with the
30:50 the sellers of the business if we’re not
30:52 connecting there’s no point um in in
30:55 transacting um because that’s not going
30:57 to set anyone up for success u in my
30:59 opinion got it and are you looking at
30:01 wedding vendes too because I know Denver
30:02 has some huge ones right I I think they
30:04 have some vendes that bring in five six
30:06 million of Revenue so yeah or is that
30:08 just kind of off the off the table for
30:10 you yeah he’s done with hospitality I
30:11 can see in his
30:13 face I can see it too so foret to ask
30:15 the
30:16 question no I’ve toed that with the idea
30:19 of uh kind of knocking off Westwood
30:21 weddings and doing a wedding venu roll
30:22 up um but at the end of the day I I
30:26 through all my networking I think yeah
30:28 hospitality is is off the table you guys
31:31 you guys saw it right in my face I did
31:33 right when he said it I was like some
31:35 people some people thrive in that so
31:37 yeah my first business was I was in I
31:39 had a bar and I was right out of college
31:41 you know I thought you know shoot I’m
31:42 really good at this um so I’m gonna open
31:44 one Casey was like I like bars my friend
31:47 likes bars we should create a bar it’s a
31:48 great idea I’m in I’m in one all the
31:50 time anyways right uh there was actually
31:52 a little better thesis than that but
31:54 honestly it was about like that and uh I
31:56 found it to be so extremely difficult to
31:59 run that business it was just
31:01 unbelievably hard so that’s one
31:04 Hospitality I mean if that was your
31:07 first business and that was incredibly
31:08 hard I imagine that set you up for
31:11 Success managing you know something that
31:12 might be a little more Simple Start
31:14 realizing like hey uh these are the
31:16 things I’m good at and these are the
31:17 things I’m not good at right I’m not
31:20 good at cost accounting and you’ve got
31:22 to be really good at Inventory
31:24 management and all that good stuff when
31:26 you run a bar right yep it’s it’s that’s
31:29 like you’re you’ve got to be that guy or
32:31 that gal and if you’re not so the most
32:34 successful guys I met doing it they were
32:36 just really good at that they were just
32:38 man very
32:39 analytical just particular and they were
32:42 on top of it every second of the day it
32:44 really was not a space for a
32:46 Visionary yep it’s uh follow the the
32:49 predescribed path and execute as well as
32:51 you can and um yeah that makes sense
32:54 awesome well no wish you luck in uh kind
32:56 of what’s next and look forward to
32:57 hopefully hearing more about that as he
32:59 starts to uncover things has there been
32:01 any specific industry that’s kind of
32:02 caught your eye at least so far that
32:03 you’ve dug in a little
32:05 deeper
32:07 um there’s been a lot of industries that
32:09 catch my eye I I learn about industries
32:12 that I I didn’t know exist and that
32:15 piques my interest um so some these
32:18 really Niche B2B um companies that are
32:20 providing you things that you see every
32:22 day um but you don’t know where that
32:24 actually comes from um so you know
32:27 companies that do things
32:28 that support a POS system or you know
33:31 brackets for very specific things um
33:35 just company that sold mounts for
33:38 security cameras and they were like the
33:40 security camera mount company it was it
33:42 was I loved it they did a lot of they
33:44 did a lot of Revenue so so you know Nick
33:46 I I tell you like so like I hear people
33:47 talk about the search process is is it’s
33:50 not fun it’s all this but man kind of
33:52 like what you’re saying like when you’re
33:54 going in that search and you’re looking
33:55 at Sims and you’re getting doc like man
33:58 I just just found myself fascinated I
33:60 mean I’m signed up on all types of I
33:03 mean I get deals every day from all over
33:05 the place I get deals from Calder
33:07 Capital out of Michigan I’m not going to
33:08 buy anything in Michigan but I like I
33:10 was building my thesis looking at things
33:13 that I like and not like for years and I
33:15 still do it because I mean this place
33:19 like you said about real estate real
33:20 estate is real estate there’s different
33:21 categories and you know it fits into a
33:24 box in business there’s so many
33:27 different things out there that you just
33:29 would never have an idea that you can
34:31 make money from 100% yeah and I love
34:34 learning and and I’m not um I’m not
34:37 smart enough to say hey I’ve got this
34:39 you know Grand thesis and I’m going to
34:40 go execute on it um I’m gonna you know
34:42 learn about something cool build some
34:44 cool relationships and then um you know
34:47 find an opportunity yeah there’s so many
34:49 there’s so many cool businesses out
34:51 there you know that mean they’re all the
34:52 ones you want to buy but they’re still
34:54 pretty cool right 100%
34:57 yeah deal junkies and so you know you
34:60 could find reasons to make a deal like
34:02 fall in love with a deal then you have
34:03 to kind of figure out okay now let’s go
34:04 back to the thesis like what are the
34:05 reasons not to do this deal and you know
34:07 a deal happens whenever it’s somewhere
34:09 in between so yeah these guys must think
34:11 I’m a little bipolar because I come in
34:12 and I’m all excited about the deal and
34:14 then once we’re all like yeah let’s go
34:16 forward then I come back and I’m like I
34:17 think it’s terrible you know it’s like
34:19 but you got to put that underwriter
34:21 mindset on right like it’s optimism on
34:23 the on the search and then as soon as
34:25 you’re done being The Optimist you’ve
34:27 got to immediately shift to the mindset
34:29 of like all right where’s all the holes
35:31 in this like how do I not you know I got
35:33 to shift that personality 100% yeah it’s
35:37 um yeah it’s it’s it’s a unique feeling
35:39 of going from extreme excitement and you
35:43 know happiness to getting into the
35:44 numbers like
35:46 oh and so yeah no you got it exactly
35:49 right there Nick Casey awesome we look
35:51 forward to seeing kind of where you end
35:53 up so we may have to get you the podcast
35:54 a little bit later to see what you buy
35:55 next so we’re going to get a button
35:57 coming up here pretty soon Ferris wants
35:59 this button that goes w w right before
35:00 we go to the rocket round so but it’s
35:02 time for the rocket round it’s time for
35:04 the rocket
35:05 round so yeah there you go so case you
35:09 wna go first yeah so let’s go just for
35:11 our listeners we always ask questions
35:13 here we have three questions from our
35:15 panelist here and and just to learn more
35:17 about them so um Nick what do you like
35:20 to do in your free time adrenaline
35:22 Sports River surfing skiing mountain
35:25 biking rafting Etc you’re in the perfect
35:29 place for that you’re my kind of guy so
36:31 indeed that is awesome yeah my hobby is
36:34 collecting Hobbies um all right next
36:37 question uh most memorable moment in
36:39 your business Journey yeah June 11th we
36:42 had I think we were doing like three
36:45 weddings all 150 200 person weddings you
36:48 know4 $50,000 in Revenue Way Beyond
36:52 anything we had ever done and I was you
36:55 know not even six months into owning the
36:57 business so that day is still um you
36:01 know in my head but basically we were
36:04 doing uh probably nine different Entre
36:07 16 different appetizers you know a
36:10 handful of different desserts all of
36:12 these food had to be delivered to three
36:13 different venues you know in a 15minute
36:16 window um I had my parents working with
36:18 me up there you know had uh their
36:21 parents his parents had their parents
36:23 Welling I mean it was all on Deck anyone
36:26 off the street come on in do some dish
36:28 is um but the team executed incredibly
37:30 well and that was I left that day
37:33 extremely tired but a feeling of uh we
37:35 got something special here awesome
37:37 that’s awesome that’s a good story all
37:39 right and so what is your favorite uh
37:40 tool or
37:42 resource oh um I love search funder yeah
37:47 lots of good resources on there um I
37:50 think that’s probably the key answer
37:52 because I find a new business I like I
37:54 go type it in there and then read about
37:55 someone who knows more about it than I
37:57 do that’s
37:58 and do you do you make comments every
37:60 month so you don’t have to pay the bill
37:02 oh yeah
37:04 yeah said it up that way right yeah yeah
37:08 and then you got the people who just
37:09 forget and then you got 80 bucks a month
37:11 coming in off uh off of those people
37:14 yeah that’s me awesome perfect well Nick
37:17 thanks for being on the show really
37:19 appreciate it for kind of listeners how
37:21 can somebody get a hold of you um yeah
37:23 you just shoot me an email uh Nick
37:25 Patrick 3@gmail.com so and n i c k e a t
37:30 r i c k number three at
38:33 gmail.com um or my Twitter is uh pick
38:38 natric so my first two letters um
38:41 switched all right perfect and we’ll
38:43 have that have those in the show notes
38:45 and maybe last thing any uh parting
38:47 words of wisdom for the listeners any
38:48 kind of inspirational thing you want to
38:49 leave them
38:51 with um yeah acquiring a business is a
38:54 sales process so make it really
38:57 consistent get your pitch down be
38:60 personable and keep on grinding Perfect
38:03 all right great advice thank you Nick
38:05 appreciate it and look forward to seeing
38:06 what you do next I appreciate you guys
38:09 it was nice
38:10 you thank you for listening to the m&a
38:13 Launchpad podcast if you’ve enjoyed
38:14 today’s podcast and would like to
38:16 support us please leave us a rating and
38:17 a review after you listen I’m Casey mchu
38:19 and I look forward to talking with you
38:21 next week
