In this episode of the M&A Launchpad Podcast, hosts Feras Moussa and Casey Minshew sit down with Dustin Carreon, founder of COI Holdings, for a powerful conversation on transitioning from small family business roots to building a successful self-funded HoldCo.
Dustin shares the full arc of his entrepreneurial journey—from collecting scrap metal with his father, to running a multi-million dollar electronics distribution company, to acquiring legacy businesses and compounding their cash flows into generational wealth. He reveals the mindset shifts, strategic decisions, and operational lessons that helped him move from hustler to long-term investor.
Whether you’re considering your first acquisition or thinking about scaling into multiple businesses, this episode offers tactical insights and long-term vision from someone who’s actually done it.
In this podcast episode, we discuss:
· How to use your first business as a launchpad to acquire others
· Building long-term wealth through a buy-and-hold acquisition model
· Why culture is a competitive advantage in small business ownership
· The power of cash flow compounding across multiple businesses
Connect with Dustin Carreon: · LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinCarreon/
· Email: dustinc@coiholdings.com · Website: https://www.coiholdings.org
Additional Resources:
· O’Connell Advisory Group – Financial diligence and Quality of Earnings experts for business buyers. Website: https://www.oconnelladvisorygroup.com
· Attend the M&A Launchpad Conference – May 3, 2025 in Houston Premier event for entrepreneurs and investors in the lower-middle market. Tickets and info: https://www.malaunchpad.com
Additional Resources:
- Sponsored by O’Connell Advisory Group – Work with a trusted Quality of Earnings and Financial Diligence partner who focuses solely on business acquisitions.
Schedule a discovery call with Patrick of O’Connell Advisory Group—your dynamic Quality of Earnings partner.
Visit: www.oconnelladvisorygroup.com - Attend the M&A Launchpad Conference on May 3rd in Houston — a premier event for entrepreneurs, investors, and dealmakers in the lower-middle market. Tickets and details at malaunchpad.com
- · Explore M&A investing and advisory with Equity Launchpad Website: https://www.equity-launchpad.com · Contact the Hosts, Casey Minshew and Feras Moussa at info@equitylaunchpad.com
🎧 Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4nHkxE0CrbjoR5NaI8Z6zt?si=XeDhyjvgS0WQfLPd9RsqqA
🎧 Podcast on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-to-build-wealth-through-a-holdco-strategy/id1740382586?i=1000702043437
🎟️ Attend Upcoming M&A Launchpad Conference: http://malaunchpad.com/
Transcript
00:00 Hey, are you thinking about buying or
00:02 selling a business? Join us May 3rd for
00:05 the M&A Launchpad Conference. This is
00:07 the premier conference for
00:08 entrepreneurs, investors navigating
00:10 mergers and acquisitions in the lower
00:12 middle market. You’re going to connect
00:14 with top dealmakers, gain insight
00:16 strategies to take your business search
00:18 and your business acquisitions to the
00:20 next level. So, get your tickets now at
00:23 malaunchpad.com and use the code launch
00:26 for $200 off your ticket. We’re looking
00:28 forward to seeing on today’s episode. We
00:30 interviewed Dustin Carry on where we
00:32 really dived into what it looks like to
00:35 kind of transition from a small
00:36 family-owned business to going and
00:38 buying your business and starting to
00:40 build together a hold strategy, right,
00:42 around how do I start to go find
00:44 businesses, buy the businesses, maybe
00:46 make some of those mistakes early on
00:47 with smaller businesses and then grow
00:49 into that, right, and build just kind of
00:51 a repeatable model to go scale and grow
00:53 into more of a conglomerate. So, Casey,
00:56 what was some of your takeaways? Yeah, I
00:57 feel like we always have to put a label
00:59 on something. Is it an independent
01:00 sponsor? Is it this? I think what we
01:02 would name this is a self-funded wholeco
01:05 strategy. Unbelievable. Forgot to add
01:07 the word AI in that with AI, right? But
01:10 at the end of the day, you know, I it’s
01:12 one of those ways to think about it,
01:13 right? compounded interest by investing
01:16 in businesses that are yours. Starting
01:18 with some cash flow, investing, going
01:20 small, building up, and getting to the
01:22 point where you make a larger
01:23 acquisition. Peeling off the real
01:25 estate, building your own little real
01:27 estate empire off the businesses that
01:28 are paying for it is a really cool way
01:31 to look at it. And you know, when you
01:32 have a role model or thinking about it
01:34 through Brookshire Hathways mentality,
01:36 you got yourself a good opportunity.
01:37 Some great podcasts. No, and I and I
01:39 love Dustin’s just kind of very
01:41 straightforward linear thinking, right?
01:44 You know, it shows that it’s not easy to
01:46 do this, but it’s doable, right? Dustin
01:49 kind of mentions he dropped out of
01:50 school. He made a lot of mistakes, but
01:51 again, he’s still very successful, made
01:53 a lot of good, smart business decisions,
01:54 and that’s allowed him to kind of build
01:56 up to where he is today. So, absolutely
01:57 lots of good nuggets on this one.
02:04 Hey guys, go ahead and just pause the
02:05 podcast for a second. When you’re buying
02:07 a business, you need to ensure the
02:09 financial health of the company. The
02:10 quality of earnings is missionritical.
02:12 It doesn’t matter what size business
02:13 you’re buying. Patrick O’Connell
02:15 Advisory Group. They’re dynamic. They do
02:16 a great job. They’re going to look over
02:18 your shoulder. They’re going to make
02:19 sure that you’re doing the right thing.
02:20 And this guy’s done over 200 buyers
02:22 successfully just like you. So, reach
02:24 out to them and it’s
02:26 okconelladvisorygroup.com. Click the
02:28 link in our show notes. Can’t live
02:29 without this. Hey Dustin, welcome to the
02:31 show. Thanks for having me, guys. You
02:34 bet, man. And so we were kind of
02:35 debriefing a little bit before the issue
02:36 before we went on live, right? And kind
02:38 of talking a little bit about you, your
02:39 businesses. And so for those listeners,
02:41 right, I think today we’re going to talk
02:42 about hold codes and how to maybe
02:44 stumble into your first business, right?
02:46 And then kind of get that bug of really
02:48 scaling out and going from there. Yeah.
02:49 It’s always a big question we get
02:51 constantly. Hey, how do I buy another
02:54 company? Right? Because we have a lot of
02:55 people that listen to our our podcast or
02:57 come to our conferences who bought a
02:59 business. Maybe not a big business.
03:00 They’re they’ve made it successful. that
03:02 got into a position and now they’re
03:04 like, “Hey, I could do this again and I
03:06 don’t want to sell. I don’t want to
03:08 exit. I’m not in the business of, you
03:09 know, the traditional private equity. I
03:11 buy five, seven years, flip and get out
03:13 of it. I want to buy and hold and create
03:15 great businesses.” So, Dustin, it sounds
03:16 like that’s been your philosophy. So,
03:19 why don’t you tell our audience a little
03:20 bit more about your story?
03:22 Yeah, I mean just to kind of touch on
03:24 the hold code, it’s it’s funny because I
03:27 it’s a it is a big thing and I’m so glad
03:30 that you have people within your
03:32 ecosystem that are interested in that
03:34 because I get asked that a lot and and
03:36 it wasn’t I for me it was just a simple
03:38 way of just trying to think about what
03:42 is it that I want to do in the future as
03:45 far as buying businesses. It just helped
03:46 me organize because I’m just kind of a
03:48 clutter, right? And anyways, I I started
03:53 just a little bit about my background um
03:56 because I think it just really ties into
03:58 like where I’m at today. So, you know, I
04:00 grew up speaking about clutter. I grew
04:02 up with a father that was in the scrap
04:05 metal business. So, cool. I got Yeah.
04:08 So, was was in a garbage truck with him.
04:11 He had like a garbage route. I don’t
04:13 even know how how the hell he got that.
04:14 Somebody owed him money and he literally
04:16 inherited like a garbage truck. True
04:18 story. So, we started going around to
04:20 these neighborhoods like in Orange
04:21 County out here, Southern California,
04:23 picking up trash, and I loved it. So, it
04:25 it was through that like hustle,
04:29 um the treasure hunt of, oh my gosh,
04:32 every day when I wake up, I’m going to
04:33 find something new that kind of
04:36 attracted me to business, you know, buy
04:38 cheap, sell high. And my dad was a very
04:41 firm believer because he had some bad
04:43 experiences with partnerships as far as
04:45 being an entrepreneur. He he worked for
04:47 companies and then he worked for
04:48 himself, but he got burned a lot. So he
04:51 was very big
04:53 on being small, having one or two
04:57 employees, doing everything yourself,
04:59 having your own truck, having everything
05:00 in your own name. So nobody could take
05:03 that away from you. And you know, being
05:05 an entrepreneur is entirely different
05:08 than that, right? Because you’re taking
05:10 a lot of risk in order to grow. You need
05:12 to hire people. you need to do these
05:14 things that are very contrary from
05:16 sometimes what we’re told when we’re
05:18 young or what we learn in school. So
05:20 from that point on, you know, as a
05:22 teenager, I I started to get like in a
05:24 lot of trouble. You know, I dropped out
05:27 of school at a young age. Um I don’t
05:29 have the traditional background. Talk
05:32 about what I do today, what we do. Um
05:35 it’s it’s it’s different. There’s
05:37 nothing wrong with that. Everybody has a
05:38 different path, but I didn’t go to
05:40 college. I got in a lot of trouble. Um,
05:42 but when I got out of the the juvenile
05:45 institutions, got my life together, um,
05:48 I was like, “Dad, I want to get back
05:50 into the scrap metal business.” You
05:51 know, I I want to do the right thing. I
05:53 want to be responsible. And it was at
05:55 that time that, you know, long story
05:59 short, the scrap business started to
06:02 turn turn into electronic recycling
06:05 parts. Good business there. Right. So
06:09 inside of electronics, old electronics,
06:12 old computers has gold, metals, precious
06:15 metals, zinc, not zinc, but um platinum
06:18 and all that. And that became a
06:20 business. And it was in that business
06:22 within that business that I started
06:24 getting into electronic parts, chips. We
06:27 all talk about chips, but it was a big
06:29 thing back then in the 90s and early
06:32 2000s. So I learned that business by
06:35 mistake. Okay, this this was nothing
06:37 that I planned to do was just something
06:39 that happened and and what happened was
06:41 from there
06:43 um I went to my dad and said look I I
06:46 don’t know what the hell I’m doing.
06:48 Let’s start a let let’s start a chip
06:50 business. Okay. Completely different
06:52 from the recycling because in the
06:54 recycling business you’re selling chips
06:56 that are going inside of computers and
06:58 then there’s like my dad had
06:60 contaminated
07:01 radioactive cobalt bricks and it’s like
07:05 you can’t have that mess chips. So, so
07:09 we moved out of there and long story
07:11 short, I started Freelance Electronics
07:13 in in the late 90s. Um, my dad being my
07:16 50% partner, I signed a six-month lease
07:20 because I didn’t want to sign a year
07:21 lease because I knew it was going to
07:22 fail. But I had to do it. I had to try
07:25 it because, um, there was potential and
07:28 the the business, the chip business was
07:29 going crazy. Had no idea I was doing.
07:32 And from that point on, guys, um, you
07:34 know, it started to grow. you know, we
07:36 grew from, I mean, back then, you know,
07:38 a few hundred thousand dollars in sales
07:40 for the two companies, which was a lot
07:42 of money back then, you know, grew it
07:44 to, you know, a million, million and a
07:46 half to a couple million dollars within
07:48 five years. So, that was a big deal back
07:50 then. And honestly, like at that point,
07:54 from that point on all the way up to the
07:57 next 10 or 15 years, I thought that I
08:01 love this business so much because it
08:03 still was doing it was still like a
08:05 treasure hunt. Even though we’re selling
08:07 brand new chips and
08:09 semiconductors, it was it was different
08:11 every day. There was we we were going
08:14 out there and buying deals, meaning we
08:16 were going to other manufacturers, other
08:18 distributors, companies that were going
08:20 out of business, companies that were
08:22 liquidating, um, obsolete material and
08:25 paying 5 to 10 cents in the dollar,
08:28 speculating on it. Um, you know, it’s
08:31 it’s a commodity business when you
08:32 really think about it. Holding it and
08:34 then selling it for 50 to 20 times what
08:37 it’s worth five or 10 years later. And I
08:40 thought to myself, I love this. I I
08:43 understand it. I don’t know a lot of
08:44 things. I could do this for the rest of
08:46 my life. And I would have been content
08:49 just by staying there unless the
08:50 business started didn’t start going
08:52 through some changes later on. And
08:54 really quick, so just to just to maybe
08:57 figure out how to tie it together. So
08:58 you went from, you know, really the
09:00 junkyard business to the chip recycling
09:03 business to then chip distributions. And
09:05 it wasn’t that you were taking recycled
09:07 chips and selling those. Was it was
09:08 actually brand new chips or was it a
09:10 little bit of both? It kind of did one
09:12 segue to the other. Yeah, definitely the
09:15 recycled chips segue to the new chips.
09:19 And the new chips we were either buying
09:21 them from other distributors like
09:23 authorized distributors, you know, like
09:25 the big, you know, Arrow, ANET, Mouser,
09:28 or we were buying them from other
09:30 companies that had surplus. So, it’s
09:32 what they call new and a new surplus. So
09:35 they were new, but they were they were
09:37 kind of like I I wouldn’t call it black
09:40 market, but it was kind of a secondary
09:43 market because if you you guys those of
09:47 us who who do manufacturing understand a
09:49 lot of times when you design something,
09:51 it was designed 10 years ago. It takes
09:53 that long for for something to get
09:56 approved on the manufacturing chain and
09:59 then all of a sudden by the time they go
10:01 into production half of those those
10:03 chips or parts are obsolete. So then
10:05 they come to people like us who will
10:07 find them. So this is great. So I I had
10:10 a great opportunity. My best friend
10:12 started a company u with a group of
10:14 guys. This was 20 plus years ago called
10:16 TechSavers. and uh they they they
10:19 noticed that Cisco right when people
10:21 bought bought their hardware gear Cisco
10:24 didn’t have a return policy. So when the
10:26 when everybody would buy so they ended
10:27 up taking the the returns and they
10:29 created a market for it. So it sounds
10:31 very similar to what you’ve done is that
10:33 you’re recycling you’re seeing these
10:34 chips you’re doing this stuff and then
10:35 you realize like there’s a market to be
10:38 able to take these these these
10:40 manufactured products that didn’t have a
10:42 market and you created a market for it.
10:44 Yeah. And is your is your market still
10:46 happening?
10:47 But was it was it to the retail hobbyist
10:49 or were you selling them in bulk to you
10:52 know essentially other uh manufacturers
10:54 that are putting assembling some sort of
10:55 product? Yeah. So great question. So
10:58 what would happen here? Here here’s an
11:00 example to hopefully answer part of that
11:02 question. So it’s a little bit of both
11:04 but it’s mainly manufacturers and other
11:08 brokers and distributors who are working
11:10 for those manufacturers. So So here
11:12 here’s here’s a little bit of both. We
11:14 we would get we would get um we would go
11:18 in for auctions to some of the local in
11:20 Southern California because this was the
11:22 hub. Burbank, the valley, even parts of
11:25 LA was the hub of defense contracting
11:27 back in the day, right? So, a lot of
11:30 those companies were downsizing. They
11:31 would have auctions and say, “We’re
11:33 getting rid of our spare parts.” Because
11:35 a lot of times they have spare parts or
11:37 surplus that they have to hold on for
11:39 their contracts. So they would call us
11:41 in and we would buy it, right? We would
11:45 bid against other guys like myself and
11:47 we would go, “Oh, there’s five pallets.
11:48 Here’s, you know, I’ll give you
11:50 $1,000.” Six months later, we would get
11:53 a call from a procurement officer or a
11:56 purchasing agent from one of those
11:57 companies. So it could be like a
11:58 Lockheed or Northrup or it could be
12:01 literally somebody on an aircraft
12:03 carrier that Northre did a contract for
12:07 for that ship and they’re saying, “Hey,
12:10 six months ago ago you bought in a in an
12:13 auction some of these
12:15 parts. We need that. We didn’t think we
12:19 needed it then, but we need it now. We
12:21 need to buy it back from you.” So a lot
12:23 of times the parts that you’re buying
12:25 that are either obsolete or surplus are
12:27 being reused again. So a lot of times
12:30 it’s manufacturers. And look to to kind
12:33 of sum it up like what so what really
12:35 happened, right? It it’s it’s the
12:38 business is still there. It’s it’s not
12:40 quite what it used to be. It’s very
12:42 profitable still, but it’s very small.
12:46 And and and that business is what
12:49 launched what I’m doing today. Because
12:51 what happened, guys, you know, where I
12:53 kind of got to where I’m at today was
12:56 that your business is only good as as
12:59 the material that you’re buying in,
13:01 right? It’s a different type of business
13:03 in a sense where some businesses, we all
13:06 know this, right? What drives other
13:07 businesses, right? Some of it is some of
13:09 it is getting leads. It’s marketing.
13:12 It’s outbound calls. It’s, you know,
13:15 service calls. You know, if you’re in
13:17 the HVAC business, contracts, whatever
13:20 it is. For our business, it was about
13:22 buying new deals. And the thing was was
13:24 that buying deals on the secondary
13:26 market was starting to get not also
13:29 competitive, but very hard to find
13:31 because of manufacturing going overseas.
13:34 And in order for me to sustain that, I
13:37 would have came to the point where I
13:39 would have had to invest a lot more
13:40 capital into either expanding, getting
13:43 more salespeople and becoming more of a
13:45 traditional
13:46 distributor where you need labs now
13:49 because counterfeiting became a real big
13:51 problem. Therefore, we would need labs
13:53 and we need technical people that um
13:56 experience that we didn’t have. So, I
13:59 said, “Look, I could keep doing this for
14:02 the rest of my life and and make a good
14:05 living, keep keep my employees employed.
14:07 I have a brother that came over from my
14:09 dad’s business that we we worked
14:12 together from day one. So, I want to
14:14 take care of the people around me. So,
14:15 we could just keep doing this. This is
14:17 fine. I can invest a lot of capital into
14:20 this or I can just collect the cash
14:24 flows in this company.
14:27 take cash flows from a company like a
14:30 Bircher Hathaway did for their dying
14:33 textile companies. I’ll just I’ll just
14:35 go ahead and just keep sucking the cash
14:39 out of the business. I don’t need to put
14:40 it back in. I’m going to invest it. So,
14:42 I’m going to either, you know, try to
14:43 buy stocks. I’m going to try to buy
14:45 property. I’m going to do something
14:47 because I don’t want to put it back in
14:48 this business because I don’t know if
14:49 I’m going to get it out. And that’s when
14:51 I started really like how did I get into
14:54 this, right? So I started like looking
14:57 at I started reading books and I and I
14:60 started reading about Berkshire Hathaway
15:02 and and and the and and and kind of what
15:04 they did on
15:08 Yes.
15:09 It’s it I mean I read that same
15:11 Brookshire Hathaway you know mentality
15:13 and it’s uh it really is one of those
15:15 amazing stories and and then you also
15:17 realize that they said that Buffett made
15:19 like 95% of his money after 50 which
15:22 people don’t really realize that right
15:23 but he has made a unbelievable amount of
15:26 money. Yeah. So on your point when he
15:30 made that when he made 90% after 50
15:33 there was a 10-year span within that
15:35 time from like the late 70s into the
15:38 early 80s where you know the book the
15:40 the book value of Berkshire Hathaway or
15:42 his net worths whatever you want to call
15:44 call it call it like like literally and
15:47 and I may have the exact numbers I have
15:49 this written down but it was like five
15:50 to 10 times what the book value was
15:52 within 10 years or something crazy than
15:54 that right and it was just a few
15:58 acquisitions that a key acquisitions
16:01 that got him to that point and and the
16:03 reason and that market at that time in
16:06 the late 70s crashed, right? So he had
16:08 buying opportunities, okay? He was
16:11 buying in a depressed market whether it
16:13 was the stock market or companies and
16:15 also at that time he had cash that he
16:18 was taking away from his dying textile
16:21 company which was which had a lot of
16:24 assets but it was undervalued. And
16:26 again, I am no way saying that, you
16:29 know, I I I’m a Buffett or I want to be
16:32 Buffett or I really know what I’m doing.
16:35 I don’t think there’s anything wrong
16:36 with that if you do. I think that, you
16:38 know, if I if there was somebody that
16:39 you were admiring and wanting to be
16:41 like, man, Buffett’s the guy, right? I
16:43 mean, it’s it’s 100%. I I read the book
16:46 uh Titan um of and it was all about John
16:48 Johnny Rockefeller, you know, and and
16:50 and I’m definitely not a Rockefeller.
16:52 Like I know that that’s not my
16:53 personality type, you know, reading it
16:55 though. But but when you read it, it
16:57 gives you this concept of going like,
16:60 okay, these guys are no different than I
17:02 was. They got onto a streak. They found
17:05 the opportunity and then they used their
17:07 personality styles to get there, right?
17:09 And so I think the beauty of a holdco
17:12 mentality and and that is really
17:14 Brookshire Hathaway if you were going to
17:16 execute a holdco strategy perfectly
17:19 which I’m not saying they did it
17:20 perfectly but you know it’s pretty the
17:22 one of the best hold models ever you
17:24 picked the right template you picked the
17:26 right business plan.
17:28 Yeah, it it made sense to me because it
17:30 was something like what what’s genius
17:32 about people that are
17:34 super smart and intelligent and
17:36 successful like Warren Buffett is they
17:38 have a way to dumb it down where it’s
17:40 very simple. And to me, that concept was
17:42 very simple. And that taking money from
17:46 an asset that is still producing cash
17:49 but is not sustainable is what I felt
17:52 like freelance electronics, my my
17:54 electronic component company was. And it
17:57 was at that point that I read a book and
17:59 it was basically like a you know it was
18:01 before buying bill it was basically like
18:03 buying a business for a dummy or an
18:05 idiot or one of those and I read it. It
18:07 was written by a lawyer and it was very
18:09 simple and I’m like wow you know what
18:12 this is not that complicated. This is
18:15 kind of what I’m doing without the
18:17 management piece is when I buy assets or
18:20 I buy a book of business or I buy you
18:22 know a warehouse with 200 pallets and I
18:25 literally did that one time which is
18:27 like a business in itself and looking
18:30 you know trying to figure out you know
18:32 if I buy something whether it’s 200
18:35 pallets or a business that
18:39 has 20 30 years of exp of of of business
18:44 experience with customers and
18:47 relationships and vendors that this is
18:51 also a business within itself. Yeah. And
18:55 what is that like I learned from but
18:57 what if I was to take the cash flows out
18:59 of the next 10 years from this thing?
19:00 What if that I’m able to sustain this?
19:02 What is it worth? So value in a company
19:05 for me and again it’s not that hard but
19:07 I had to figure out what is a business
19:10 really worth before I’m going to do
19:11 this. Can I can you know a two can I do
19:16 this or is this in my area of
19:18 competence? what is something that I
19:20 could really understand, right? What
19:22 what what is something that I
19:24 understand? you know, I know
19:25 electronics, I know scrap, but I also
19:27 knew that, you know, I’ve read a lot of
19:31 uh 10Ks and information uh you know,
19:35 about about the company’s annual reports
19:37 and like there’s certain things that I
19:39 could really understand that are not
19:40 that complicated. And then there’s
19:42 there’s things that I just like like
19:44 Warren Buffett talks about like almost
19:46 having a list of things that I’m just
19:47 going to avoid for now because it’s just
19:50 far beyond me. So, I started thinking
19:52 about that. So I literally around that
19:55 time, not exactly, but around that time
19:58 guys, is when I thought about this whole
19:60 coal model and I put like, you know,
20:02 Dustin Inc. or something for my name and
20:06 and I put underneath the bracket
20:08 Freelance Electronics. So that’s the
20:10 company that I already have. I have that
20:12 company, okay? And whether it’s going to
20:14 be around or not, that company is going
20:17 to be, no pun intended, my launchpad,
20:20 right? Love it. That’s why we have the
20:22 name we have by design. It’s going to be
20:25 my launchpad. And from there, I’m going
20:28 to go ahead and use those cash flows and
20:31 and and acquire these businesses. I
20:33 don’t know how I’m going to do it. I I
20:34 don’t really have a plan, but I wrote it
20:36 down. And under freelance electronics, I
20:38 wrote down other companies and I wrote
20:40 down some of my competitors companies.
20:42 I’m going to buy this company. I’m going
20:43 to buy that company. And then under
20:45 bracket number two is going to be every
20:48 company that I that I think I want to
20:50 buy, I’m going to own the property for
20:51 that. So that will be, you know,
20:53 property one, property two, and we’ll
20:55 call this, you know, carry on my last
20:57 name, you know, real estate. And then
20:58 the third one will be other types of and
21:01 again it’s not that it happened exactly
21:03 that way, but it was a road map, a very
21:06 rough road map. It was a vision and it
21:09 was something that I said, “Okay, let’s
21:12 go ahead and do this.” Beautiful. Yeah.
21:15 What a great story, man. I mean, that is
21:16 great. And we want to talk into some of
21:18 the acquisitions. Yeah. Uh but one of
21:20 the things you got to do is you got to
21:21 buy a Geico because then you can have
21:23 all the free cash flow and all the stuff
21:25 of your investment, right? No, what I I
21:27 literally learned about Buffett. Watch,
21:28 you know, you all you got to do is watch
21:30 his documentary. There’s some really
21:31 good shows on out there and you’re
21:32 sitting there going like, “Wow, he he w
21:35 it wasn’t by accident, right? He he was
21:38 looking for ways to get access to more
21:40 cash.” uh and the insurance business
21:42 gave provided him that float and then
21:45 that float allowed him to go and acquire
21:46 more and so I think we’re all kind of
21:48 looking for where our float is right
21:50 what is that thing that’s going to allow
21:51 us to float some cash to grow u and
21:54 there’s some vehicles out there and
21:55 there’s some things to do but man I
21:56 think Dustin it’s the it’s the right
21:58 path I think it’s the right model very
21:59 similar to what at equity launchpad you
22:01 know some people call it an independent
22:03 sponsor I think from an independent
22:05 sponsor side it’s more of like you’re
22:06 trying to be in the private equity space
22:08 I mean I’m talking about more like the
22:09 the capital raising
22:11 You’re not raising outside capital,
22:12 right? You you’re it sounds like you’re
22:14 rais you’re using your internal cash to
22:17 acquire other businesses and those
22:19 businesses that you’re buying may have
22:21 some debt, you have SBA, you’re using
22:24 different ve you know different
22:25 vehicles, but you’re not going out and
22:27 raising capital. Am I am I am I hearing
22:29 that correctly? 100%. And and again that
22:34 you know that thinking that model which
22:36 which is true is what I kind of thought
22:38 about you know what am I going to do?
22:40 How do I see debt? And I think you have
22:42 to really understand that in the
22:44 beginning or discover that like what am
22:46 I and and and and it all goes back to
22:48 Buffett and investing and understanding
22:51 the basic principles of accounting um
22:54 and compounding of course which I you
22:56 know which I definitely want to tie into
22:58 is that you know what am I what am I
23:01 really comfortable with? How do I feel
23:04 about taking on debt about taking risk
23:06 if I do an SBA loan about personal
23:09 guarantees? I mean, a lot of us have
23:11 fears about that. For me, and again,
23:13 it’s different for everybody else, like
23:16 having nothing to begin with, literally
23:18 having nothing, like running my dad’s
23:20 business out of an apartment where we
23:22 have literally barrels inside of the the
23:25 kitchen, right, with scrap metals, like
23:27 there wasn’t a lot to lose. So, when I
23:29 talk about risk and a personal guarantee
23:32 and and instead of going, “Oh my gosh,
23:35 you know, why are you guys asking me for
23:37 these things?” when this is later on
23:38 when you start taking loans and stuff.
23:40 It’s like my whole life I’ve been I’ve
23:42 been personal guaranteeing my whole
23:44 business, right? You you put everything
23:46 on the line, you know, you’re not doing
23:48 this for the money. If you’re doing this
23:51 for the money, and that was the thing,
23:52 like, you know, I don’t want to just
23:54 flip things. I I I ran my business like
23:57 that early on, and for me, I didn’t want
23:59 to just buy something just to get rid of
24:01 it, you know? I it it’s just it’s more
24:03 of a personality thing. Not to say that
24:06 I may have to do that and make some
24:08 decisions, but yeah, going back to your
24:11 question about capital and money and and
24:13 and some of that sat in from what my dad
24:16 used to tell me, you know, pay
24:18 everything. My dad had his scrap dealer.
24:20 He had a lot of cash like this, right?
24:22 Pay everything for cash. Don’t take on a
24:24 lot of debt. But I knew I I had to do
24:26 that, right? I knew that there was good
24:28 debt. I knew that, you know, just the
24:31 basics like, you know, if I borrow
24:33 something at 5% and I’m getting, you
24:35 know, five to eight%, I’m getting a 20
24:37 20 time return, you know, rate of
24:40 return. Good leverage versus bad
24:42 leverage, right? Yes, absolutely. And
24:45 you said something earlier I want to
24:47 harp on really quick is, you know,
24:48 people, and I I hear this in the real
24:50 estate side, this coin, I love it,
24:51 though, and it’s really those that are
24:53 rich sell, those that are wealthy hold,
24:56 right? Right? And so if you could really
24:57 hold, you build real wealth, right?
24:59 Versus if you’re forced to make an exit
25:01 or you you know, you come with that
25:02 mindset, yeah, you’ll make some money,
25:04 but you’re not going to be able to build
25:06 just the compoundingness of a business
25:08 over time. Yeah. And and I had a a
25:10 mentor uh back first business I did out
25:12 of college was I got in the bar business
25:14 and uh I was there all the time anyways.
25:16 I thought, well, you know, hey, I know
25:17 how to do it. And uh didn’t do well, but
25:19 the gentleman I had kind of modeled, I
25:21 worked for when I was in college and I
25:23 saw his successes. Um, and I I ran into
25:27 him the airport literally two months
25:28 ago. I haven’t seen the guy in 20some
25:30 years. And uh, he had made he had moved
25:33 from in Austin, Texas. He had moved from
25:35 Sixth Street, sold all of his his his
25:37 businesses and moved over to Fifth
25:39 Street and he he built he he created a
25:42 beautiful business um, uh, restaurant,
25:45 bar, everything. Just it’s it’s great.
25:47 Well, when I ran into him, we started
25:49 talking. He said, “What are you doing?”
25:50 And I told him about Launchpad and what
25:52 Equity Launchpad does. And he says, “Are
25:54 you guys just flipping or are you
25:56 holding?” And I and I and I and this
25:58 guy’s very very sharp. And he told me,
26:00 he said, “Look, it took about 10 years
26:03 at his company, his business to really
26:05 make it all come together.” He goes,
26:07 “I’m now on year 26.” And he’s like
26:11 that. He goes, “Casey, my advice to you,
26:13 again, you know, this is guy, you know,
26:15 was a mentor when I was in college.
26:17 Years later, he was like, the buy hold
26:19 strategy will pay you much better than
26:21 the buy flip.” That’s what he told me.
26:23 And then I didn’t see him again. He
26:24 grabbed his bags and he he was off. And
26:26 I was like, I don’t know. He was just
26:28 there to tell me about it. But it’s it’s
26:29 true. It’s having a long-term vision
26:31 because these businesses take time. You
26:34 know, you’ve got to build that that
26:35 time. And if you can get that time, wow,
26:38 especially with an SBA loan, right?
26:39 You’re 10 years, right? And if you can
26:41 get to that 10th year and it’s free cash
26:43 flow from there and you take the Dustin
26:45 mentality of like, hey, I’m going to
26:47 take that free cash flow and not go buy
26:48 a Lamborghini. I’m gonna go buy a
26:50 business instead of getting, you know,
26:51 and and that’s a beautiful mindset. And
26:54 it kind of takes me to the whole uh
26:56 video I was sharing with Ferris last
26:58 night. You know, JD Vance just did a a
26:60 whole conversation about like their
27:02 strategy and I forgot the conference he
27:03 was at. It was the American whatever
27:05 like whatever. It’s not about who’s
27:08 winning or not winning or who’s
27:09 political side. His conversation was
27:12 about bringing jobs back to America,
27:14 empowering the middle class and how
27:16 we’re going to do it right. No tax on
27:18 tips, no tax on overtime. The reason why
27:20 we’re doing tariffs is to to make things
27:22 more competitive and all that stuff. But
27:23 for Dustin, for you and I and Ferris and
27:25 all of us that are buying in today, I
27:27 truly truly believe that we are the next
27:30 generation of the American boom. We get
27:33 to be a part of it, right? We’re
27:35 transitioning legacy companies. We’re
27:37 transitioning them to, you know, the
27:39 future. And what an honor to be a part
27:42 of that, you know, and so it’s it’s much
27:43 bigger than, like you said, the money.
27:45 It’s it’s it’s so much bigger than that.
27:48 And there’s a tremendous amount of risk
27:49 and we hope that the money catches up to
27:51 the risk, but at the end of the day,
27:53 man, we’re we’re titans of industries
27:55 here in our own in America. It’s it’s
27:57 pretty amazing. Pretty amazing.
27:60 Yeah. No, absolutely. I I think
28:03 that God, there’s so much there that you
28:06 said that I we we could talk another
28:07 five hours about, but of course, I think
28:10 that there’s pressure on us. I don’t
28:14 know how you guys feel when you take
28:15 over a company and and and I’m talking
28:17 about some of the companies we own
28:18 today. Literally, there’s one that’s
28:20 been around for almost a hundred years.
28:22 The the one in the Midwest in Illinois,
28:25 that’s a manufacturer W. It’s been
28:26 around for almost a hundred years.
28:28 Another one that we have today, um the
28:31 aerospace distribution parts company
28:33 Fasteners has been around for 75 years.
28:36 You know, these are second or third
28:37 generations. So, you know, you know, th
28:41 this this little punk guy from uh you
28:44 know, LA, that’s a lot of pressure and
28:47 and the pressure is on ourselves. Like,
28:49 look, how are we I got to make
28:52 sure not just this isn’t just about
28:55 making money. This is about there’s
28:57 employees here. There are people that
28:59 have been here for 20, 30 years, almost
29:01 as long as I’ve been alive. Um there’s
29:03 there’s family
29:05 generations. Yeah. There’s a lot of
29:07 things that need improvement, but
29:09 there’s something going on here within
29:12 the company, within the
29:14 industry, whatever that is the reason
29:17 why it’s been on for a long time. Yeah.
29:20 And there’s pressure to not screw it up.
29:22 And and the job is I think Char uh
29:26 Charlie Munger said this, you know, my
29:28 job is not to do great. My job is just
29:30 to not to screw things up.
29:33 And and I think Yeah. And I and I think
29:36 I can do that. And I and I think that,
29:38 you know, another saying too, not to
29:40 make this like a Birkshire Hathaway
29:42 conference, but I think Warren Buffett
29:43 also said, and I’m probably going to
29:44 mess this up, like, you know, time is on
29:46 the side of a good
29:48 business. Time is on the side and the
29:50 enemy of a bad business. So if if if
29:54 you’re
29:55 truly bullish on the industry and I’m
29:59 not just talking about the companies
30:01 because let’s face it guys and I’m sure
30:02 you realize like I am you you come on
30:05 board in day one you when you buy this
30:07 company you know whether it’s you know
30:08 which we have done two or three people
30:10 operation or 20 to 30 employees plus
30:14 there’s no process there’s no that no
30:17 one’s making outbound calls there’s no
30:19 sales manager the owner’s doing the even
30:21 on some of these the owners you know
30:23 literally I saw an owner doing calls for
30:28 their own AR accounts receivables
30:31 instead of running the business. So you
30:33 know there’s no
30:34 HR, there’s no policy on breaks. These
30:38 companies need a lot of work but they’re
30:40 successful. Y so if I could come in and
30:43 just add a little bit of value there
30:45 that’s going to improve the company
30:46 overnight. And and and the thing is is
30:50 that again going back to the whole
30:52 compounding thing because I I I wanted
30:54 to touch on this and and the way I saw
30:56 things about you know versus the
30:58 shortterm and the long term was that
31:01 that was something that really made
31:02 sense to me. It it you know the the buy
31:04 and sell thing there’s nothing wrong
31:06 with that, right? I I’ve done I’ve sold
31:09 assets before that have appreciated and
31:12 sold them within three or four years.
31:15 You know there’s tax strategies. is
31:16 there’s all these things you got to
31:17 think about that make sense. But for me
31:20 to to your point Casey was that you know
31:25 I you know it compounds. So I I I have
31:28 my first business uh the electronic
31:30 component business. I I I take cash out
31:33 of that business. I invested in other
31:35 things, right? Things that, you know, I
31:37 there was a pretty decent return like
31:38 stocks, like assets and this and that.
31:41 And then I buy my first business and,
31:43 you know, and and that was a learning
31:45 curve and took cash out of that. We we
31:48 had a couple good years and I I took
31:51 some cash out of that, paid down to the
31:52 debt, used that money, and then went
31:55 ahead and bought my third business. And
31:57 then all of a sudden, I refinanced a
31:59 building. my building
32:02 appreciated, took the took took the
32:06 capital out of that, paid cash for
32:08 another business. So, I have these three
32:10 businesses. I have a couple properties.
32:12 They’re all generating cash. And then
32:14 from there, I was able to do bigger
32:16 deals and bigger deals and then that
32:18 cash went back into the other companies.
32:21 It compounded. It compounded and it
32:23 compounded. You know, I’m probably not
32:25 explaining this in simplest terms, but
32:27 the thing is is it
32:29 happens very very very fast. So anyways,
32:33 I just wanted to touch on the
32:35 compounding part and and before and
32:37 before we run out of time, right? You
32:38 know, I think maybe a lot of listeners
32:39 are more visual like me, what was that
32:41 business that you ended up buying,
32:42 right? So once you kind of had freelance
32:44 electronics, you you kind of okay came
32:46 up with the maybe the vision of okay,
32:48 I’m going to go and acquire some
32:49 business. What was that first one? you
32:52 know, and maybe for the listener, I
32:53 mean, how did you buy it? How did you
32:54 structure it? Was it successful, how
32:56 successful, just to kind of help gauge,
32:58 you know, what that first one was and
32:60 then what the next one after that was.
33:03 Yeah, it that that is very important for
33:06 me and I reflect back on that all the
33:08 time. Look, this is the the and I want
33:11 to say this the what I hear a lot on
33:14 podcasts, what I hear a lot of people
33:16 talk about and and I’m and and and I
33:18 agree with this in a sense is that you
33:20 know you know buying a small business is
33:22 as much work as buying a bigger
33:24 business. So go after bigger businesses.
33:26 Even if you need partners, even you know
33:28 what what is it? You know, a smaller
33:29 piece of a large pie is better than one
33:31 slice of a big pie or whatever. Small
33:34 pie, however you want to say it. I’m
33:35 screwing that up, but whatever one is.
33:38 Yeah, this is the thing. I went out and
33:41 bought a small company for my first
33:43 acquisition. I read that book and I
33:45 wanted to prove to myself that I could
33:47 actually do this even though I kind of
33:48 knew deep down inside. So I started
33:51 looking at businesses that were
33:54 different than the electronics company
33:56 but not so much had synergies but as far
33:60 as the buy and sell and the the the the
34:04 type there was overlap in electronics
34:06 and the hardware business. So I started
34:07 I came across so literally once I made
34:10 that decision for me you guys I all I
34:13 all I was like okay I came across
34:14 something and I started looking at bis
34:16 buy sell and all those webs and there’s
34:19 millions of companies on there and I got
34:20 flooded with all that and probably
34:23 within I’m talking three or four months
34:25 once I was serious about doing this
34:27 thing I came across a business out here
34:29 in Southern California really close by
34:32 um you know geography wise and it was a
34:35 three or four uh person operation,
34:37 family business, been around for a long
34:39 time. It was it was one company at one
34:42 time. So, it was a manufacturer of of of
34:45 fasteners. And what they did is the
34:47 family broke off between the siblings
34:50 and one sibling got the smaller
34:53 distribution part. So, instead of making
34:55 fasteners, they sold fasteners. They
34:58 distributed them. And the other one was
35:00 manufacturer. So, it was small. We’re
35:03 talking small. We’re talking it was
35:05 doing anywhere from like 600,000 to like
35:08 eight or 900,000 in revenue, right? Um
35:10 it had a couple down years. There was
35:13 literally three people working working
35:14 in the business and then a family owner.
35:17 And I saw it come up. I read it in in
35:20 biz by sell. And I’m like, “Oh my gosh,
35:23 this is like perfect.” Because I’ve
35:25 always was fascinated with fast with
35:27 fastener companies, right? Because I I
35:29 thought it was a very hard business to
35:31 understand. So, I called the broker like
35:34 religiously. They I didn’t get a call
35:36 back. And that’s one of the thing we we
35:38 hear about, right? Like they don’t call
35:39 me back. And I’m like, “No, I I called
35:42 them and I got the lady on the phone. I
35:44 go, “Look, I I know I kind of understand
35:47 this business. I’m kind of doing the
35:49 same thing in my other business. Um I I
35:52 wanted, you know, I didn’t know any
35:55 idea, you know, I didn’t have any really
35:57 clue on what to do, right? How the whole
35:59 process went. So, I I didn’t have like
36:01 an attorney. I didn’t have another
36:02 broker. I just winged it and and I just
36:05 So, I went in there um talked to the
36:08 owners, talked to uh some of the key
36:10 staff and I I made an offer. And the way
36:14 I structured the deal because it wasn’t
36:16 that profitable at at that time was that
36:20 I did um 50% seller financing. Again,
36:23 this was very unusual. This is not
36:25 something that happens all the time. So,
36:26 I did 50% um financing the I I believe I
36:31 paid I want to say all in total for that
36:34 business which which is probably a
36:35 little bit of a high multiple um at that
36:38 time if you look at what it was really
36:40 cash flowing it seller discretionary
36:42 earnings was
36:43 probably 150 to 200,000 approximately um
36:47 so I ended up paying about
36:50 475,000 or something like that with 50%
36:53 seller financing that included did um
36:57 some receivables. So I I think I got
36:59 like the fir I bought some receivables,
37:01 but I I got like the first 50 or 75,000
37:04 of receivables and then bought the rest
37:05 of them for a discount. But what was
37:08 really key in that business, what I
37:09 understood for my background was that
37:11 inventory was very undervalued. There
37:13 was there was, you know, a million
37:14 dollars worth of inventory. It was very
37:16 undervalued. I looked at it and said,
37:18 you know what, I I I think we could, you
37:21 know, possibly resell this at a higher
37:23 price. So, that’s how I structured the
37:27 deal. Um, it it was basically three
37:31 people and the owner and I came in there
37:34 on day one myself and basically was
37:38 like, “Okay, here we go.” And and I just
37:40 tried again. There was no real game
37:41 plan. I had a few of my staff that I
37:43 brought all basically I had this holding
37:46 company. I had my electronics company
37:48 and that was it. And the holding company
37:50 was just really on paper. So, so that’s
37:53 kind of what happened on day one. Um,
37:54 but yeah, you know, seller financing it
37:57 was it was uh the terms on that deal was
37:59 I think it was five years. Um, you know,
38:02 so I financed the 250,000 or something
38:05 what whatever happened five years on a
38:07 fixed rate of like 7% very small and I
38:09 ended up pay I ended up actually paying
38:11 it off and I think it was like two or
38:13 three years. So that that was the first
38:16 deal and boy did I learn a lot. I
38:19 learned a lot. It it was it was really
38:21 really really tough. You know what I’ll
38:24 tell you just to kind of piggyback on
38:25 that, you know, so we as a team went out
38:27 and acquired uh in 2023 a big business
38:30 or I’d say lower middle market, you
38:32 know, uh 25 million revenue business and
38:36 um it’s it’s been about 170 employees,
38:38 which yeah lot I mean it’s so call it
38:41 whatever you want. Um really hard. I
38:44 mean it’s it’s difficult. It’s it’s it’s
38:46 all the things. Three divisions. I
38:48 highly would suggest anybody that’s
38:50 listening to this right now not do that
38:51 on your first deal. Like I think what
38:54 Dustin did on his first deal is the
38:56 right thing because what happens is is
38:58 that if you you’re learning how to be an
39:01 entrepreneur and run an a business,
39:03 that’s one thing. You were already an
39:05 entrepreneur, Dustin. You know, now
39:07 you’ve got to learn how to be the guy
39:08 that acquires a business, helps change
39:11 culture, get that that business back on
39:14 track. And there’s it’s a whole another
39:15 skill set. It’s different than, you
39:18 know, this was a business my father and
39:19 I started and kicked it off and people
39:21 come in and they work for you and
39:22 there’s loyalty and there’s all that.
39:24 Now you got to go in and you got to get
39:26 their loyalty and you got to get a a
39:28 small mass moving in the right
39:30 direction. To me, there’s no right or
39:32 wrong way, right? I just think that at
39:34 the end of the day, um, this is very
39:37 hard. It doesn’t matter if you buy a
39:38 threeman group or you buy 170 employee
39:40 group. You know, buying and
39:42 transitioning in that process comes with
39:45 a tremendous amount of skills that that
39:47 a lot of us just don’t have. Right. Like
39:49 you, Dustin, I didn’t go to an Ivy
39:51 League. I went to college. Uh but I
39:53 think I went to a party and uh you know,
39:55 I did understand accounting, but I
39:56 figured out accounting in my first
39:57 business when I totally did everything
39:59 wrong. You know, it’s like that’s the
40:02 beauty of what we’re doing and uh and
40:04 getting in and doing it. So I again just
40:06 kind of piggybacking what you said on
40:07 your first business is like find what
40:09 works for you but do not be concerned
40:10 about size. Um you know my wife has been
40:13 saying that for a very long time. No she
40:16 but the idea is is that hey I am going
40:19 to get into the game. I’m going to learn
40:20 how to do it. Like you said prove it to
40:22 myself. And so for our listeners you
40:24 know I I I I agree with Dustin. You know
40:27 it’s like if you’re going to do it you
40:29 know go learn get the skill sets.
40:31 Especially most of the guys I talk to
40:33 are in their 20s, early 30s, and I’m
40:35 like, man, there’s no need for you to go
40:36 slug down a $5 million SBA note. If
40:39 you’ve never run a business before and
40:41 you’re getting into this, that is just
40:43 unnecessary risk, especially at 10%
40:46 interest rates. You know, it’s crazy
40:47 times. Find a deal. Find a place you
40:50 could put some cash in, owner finance.
40:52 Um, that’s the deals that I think are
40:54 the winners today, Dustin. Yeah. Get get
40:57 your hands dirty. um work in the
40:60 business like you don’t know anything
41:01 and and and and really that was and
41:04 still today that is really kind of the
41:07 high of doing what we’re doing is you
41:10 know really learning something and going
41:12 oh my gosh I didn’t know this was a
41:14 business or wow they’re doing something
41:16 and I’m sure you find this in your
41:18 business like we’re doing a service or
41:19 we’re doing something that is really
41:22 important for the economy or you know
41:25 I’m flying on an airplane and I’m you
41:27 know thinking especially days like I
41:29 hope we’re going to land okay but I’m
41:30 like wow our parts are on this airplane
41:32 like these are things that are really
41:35 cool but going going back like to what
41:38 you’re talking about like if I would
41:40 have if if if I would have talked
41:42 to you know somebody that was buying
41:45 other businesses at that time when I
41:48 bought my first business they would have
41:50 probably told me you know you you’ve
41:51 been running a business for a while you
41:53 you know the basics of accounting you
41:56 you understand financing
41:58 whatever. Buy a bigger business. Just go
42:01 out. You don’t you don’t need to do
42:02 that. And and for me, it was like I’m
42:04 glad that I had a little bit of that
42:06 imposttor syndrome. I just had to figure
42:09 it out on my own. And what and and what
42:11 I learned from that process, it it
42:14 wasn’t just when after you do that first
42:17 deal, okay, and you decide, wow, I want
42:20 to keep doing this. I want to grow this.
42:22 I like the whole code model or maybe I
42:24 just want to buy a few people and and do
42:26 app rollups and then and then get rid of
42:28 them later on. That’s fine. But what you
42:30 find out is that learning running the
42:33 business and growing the business is one
42:34 thing. But the key that I got when I
42:37 started talking to other brokers, when I
42:40 started talking to other owner, and
42:41 again, there’s a million ways to find
42:43 businesses now and day, but when you
42:45 start talking to other people, what they
42:48 really want to know for those people
42:50 that are like, “Oh my gosh, I um I I
42:54 called 50 brokers and I didn’t call get
42:57 a call back.” Or I talked to an owner,
42:59 he wants to sell to me, but he has three
43:01 other owners that are trying to buy this
43:03 business and I didn’t get the business.
43:05 what in my opinion you know after doing
43:08 five or actually six deals now right
43:11 which I acquired two of them have been
43:13 rolled up recently but after doing six
43:15 deals small but six deals what they
43:18 really want to understand is do you know
43:21 how to go through the process of getting
43:24 a deal done buying the business oh I
43:27 could run the business but as you guys
43:29 know when you start you know
43:33 LOI to negotiating with the seller to
43:37 due diligence to the financing piece to
43:41 closing is a
43:43 tremendous feat and what I learned was
43:47 to try to not perfect but get better not
43:50 just with myself but my team and put a
43:52 team together put a process together on
43:54 how to get a deals done. So, when I call
43:56 a broker or an owner,
43:59 um, I’m going to get a phone call back
44:02 or they’re going to want to deal with
44:04 because, you know, it’s a lot of times
44:05 when you deal with the broker, it’s
44:06 about price, but sometimes it’s not.
44:08 What they really want to understand is
44:10 can you get the deal done and and that’s
44:12 where you get better. That’s my biggest
44:14 piece of advice for somebody that’s
44:16 doing this for the first time. That’s
44:17 why buying a couple of those small
44:19 companies wasn’t about just running the
44:22 company, but how do I get the deal done?
44:25 How do I, you know, how am I going to
44:28 deal with when I get five LOIs, one
44:30 comes through, I’ve been working on it
44:32 for six months, and then I get to
44:33 another six months and it falls through.
44:35 How you going to respond with that? How
44:37 you going to respond when they tell you
44:39 no? or when the bank SBA loans as you
44:42 guys know it’s it’s you might it’s
44:45 better getting a prostate exam than than
44:49 getting an SBA loan. It is grueling as
44:52 an entrepre you have to know how to go
44:54 through that process. You have to deal
44:55 with adversity and that that happens.
44:57 It’s part of the game and you have to be
44:59 the person to not you know just
45:01 completely toss your hands up and give
45:03 up on everything, right? It’s about okay
45:05 here’s a challenge here are the possible
45:07 solutions. pick something, keep moving
45:09 forward. It’s just about constantly
45:10 moving the bullet forward. And you know,
45:12 really quick, Dustin, before we move on,
45:14 because I know we’re running out of
45:15 time. You know, that first business you
45:16 bought it, what was the next business
45:17 like? Give the 20 second pitch because
45:19 usually it’s that one that you learn and
45:21 take all those lessons and you know,
45:22 find the thing that that really starts
45:24 to accelerate. The next business was a
45:27 very similar company. It was it was in
45:28 the state of Washington, right? So far
45:31 away. I’m running it remote. Another
45:33 small business, but it had an element to
45:36 it that I really liked. And it was
45:37 serving local manufacturers. Um, so it
45:40 was basically like a company that comes
45:42 to your warehouse every day like you
45:44 guys. You guys are a manufacturer and
45:45 say, “Hey, what do you guys need? Do you
45:47 need gloves? Do you need um, you know,
45:50 uh, you know, PPE supplies? Do you need
45:54 abrasives? Um, you know, we sell it all,
45:56 right? We also do a lot. So we do like
45:58 bento stock kind of like a fast but on a
46:00 smaller. So they serve local
46:03 manufacturers. I like the business. What
46:05 was very key on that business that I
46:08 still have today, right, it’s just a
46:10 small little business. What I learned
46:12 differently from my first business was
46:15 the culture and that you had a culture
46:18 that was so different at the first
46:20 business run run by
46:22 a an owner in a family business that
46:28 really ran by ran everything by fear.
46:32 They don’t they didn’t trust me in the
46:34 beginning. They didn’t trust their
46:35 employees. I go to this other business
46:38 and they the owner gave the owner was an
46:40 absentee owner and the employees there
46:43 had a lot of trust in each other and
46:45 they had a lot of autonomy and when I
46:47 talked to the employee I literally and
46:50 could say it today these three people
46:52 are like you know that they’re they’re
46:53 like the Beatles you know without
46:55 without the four person they are awesome
46:59 and they are the best team that I ever
47:01 encountered and I bought the business
47:04 for them and and and that’s what it
47:07 really taught me. It was like, yeah, I
47:09 it’s making a little bit of money, but
47:11 it was really that that experience that
47:13 I got of how important it is the culture
47:15 and when you’re buying smaller
47:17 businesses, that one employee leaves or
47:21 if there’s a toxic employee, it could
47:23 sink the entire company. So that was
47:26 really a lesson for me that look I I
47:28 could I could keep this company because
47:30 it has a good staff and I could probably
47:33 grow it because I have the right pieces
47:34 there. Love it, man. Very good.
47:38 Congratulations to all that success,
47:39 Dustin. I I really think amazing. So
47:41 right now we’re going to jump into our
47:42 rocket round. This is when we ask our
47:44 guests three questions and uh to learn a
47:48 little bit more. So Dustin, I’m going to
47:49 kick it off. So what do you like best to
47:50 do in your free time?
47:52 I love I’m an outdoors person. Um I I
47:55 love to fish. I I like being on the
47:58 ocean. So I go I go on a boat like for
47:60 two weeks out of the year and we just we
48:02 catch big tuna. I like to hike, like to
48:05 go up to the Sierras of the mountains.
48:07 So outdoor persons, it’s uh you know, I
48:10 take a I take a trip by myself once a
48:12 year to the mountains just escape, get
48:14 off the grid. It very very vital um for
48:17 for business and for health and for my
48:19 personal life. Awesome. And next
48:22 question, most memorable moment in your
48:23 business journey. So, we didn’t really
48:26 get into the other businesses um too
48:28 much, the bigger businesses, but it’s
48:31 it’s um my my my one my most recent
48:36 larger acquisition. It’s it’s Gates
48:38 Washer in Illinois. And that company
48:41 makes a lot of washers. It’s a machine
48:45 shop. And the day one that I bought,
48:47 it’s it’s a, you know, like you guys,
48:48 it’s a it’s a big, you know,
48:50 35,000 40,000 square feet building and
48:53 so forth. Yours is probably a lot larger
48:56 with all those employees. And I was
48:58 walking in there after I closed on the
48:60 building and and the business. And I saw
49:03 this area of containers of scrap metal,
49:08 brass, copper, stainless steel, and
49:11 steel. And I got
49:13 nostalgic and I thought about, oh my
49:16 gosh, I used when I was a kid, I would
49:18 go to companies like
49:20 this and buy their scrap metal with my
49:23 dad and those barrels of metal were like
49:25 the my gold back then. And now I’m
49:28 actually owner of a company that is
49:31 generating that scrap. And and again, it
49:35 wasn’t a money thing. It was just like
49:36 it’s kind of like full circle. It’s it’s
49:39 Windows doc connect. destination and and
49:42 it was just amazing a feeling and it’s
49:44 like wow this is this is why I do this
49:46 my my dad who’s no longer around would
49:49 be very happy about this because he
49:50 loved metal you love metal so that’s
49:53 incredible it all right last question
49:55 what is your favorite tool or resource
49:59 so I got to tell you I think this is a
50:01 double-edged sword could be our our very
50:04 distractive resource and it could be our
50:06 best resource but for me it’s really the
50:08 phone and the the iPhone or whatever
50:12 phone you have. And a subcomponent of
50:15 that for me is really going to be
50:19 podcast and podcasts like yours. Um,
50:23 there are a million podcasts out there
50:25 about
50:26 M&A,
50:27 about everything in life, self-help. I
50:31 mean, there I can name them all. I’m
50:32 sure you guys all heard of them. I’m
50:34 telling you, for me, for somebody that
50:36 hasn’t gone to college, it’s an MBA.
50:38 it it’s so much stuff that I learn about
50:41 people’s experiences
50:43 um advice that I’ve got. I mean, I have
50:46 literally made
50:47 decisions and fi financial decisions.
50:51 I’ve had success from people’s stories
50:54 and what I’ve heard. And a thing I like
50:56 about your guys podcast and things like
50:58 this is because a lot of the people that
51:00 get interviewed are very honest. you
51:03 know, they’re they’re people are not
51:04 coming on your podcast and bragging
51:06 about how much money they made or how
51:08 awesome they are. They really talk about
51:10 their struggles. And I think for people
51:13 that are buying businesses and
51:15 entrepreneurs, we need to hear it’s the
51:18 wins are easy. It’s the losses that we
51:20 really grow from. But it’s within that
51:22 that you realize if I could share about
51:24 my story sometimes and say, “Hey, you
51:27 know, I was a troubled team and I made I
51:28 could write a book about that, but I
51:30 made a lot of mistakes as a youngster.”
51:32 Hopefully somebody hears that and gets
51:34 something goes, “Hey, maybe I can do it.
51:36 This if this dummy can do it, maybe I
51:38 can do it.” So I think podcast and the
51:40 second thing I’ll say real t um AI and
51:43 chat GBT it it has transformed the way I
51:47 get stuff done. It’s unbelievable. Um
51:50 how how much it’s it how much more
51:52 productive I am. Awesome. Love it.
51:54 Dustin, how can uh people get a hold of
51:56 you?
51:58 So, I think I have a an X slitter
52:02 account, but I don’t tweet anything. I
52:03 have like 10 followers. That’s probably
52:05 not a good place, but I I am on
52:06 LinkedIn. I’m I’m I’m somewhat easy
52:08 buying businesses. I get it. Yeah. Yeah.
52:11 So, I I you know, Dustin Carryon. Um, I
52:15 I have a LinkedIn account, so I I I am
52:18 somewhat active on there. I I post stuff
52:20 about my businesses or or stuff about
52:22 just
52:23 entrepreneurship and so forth. Um, my
52:26 email is
52:29 dustincoldings.com or you could find me
52:31 at cio
52:33 ciholdings which is my holding company
52:36 coholdings.org.
52:38 Awesome. Beautiful. That’s an incredible
52:40 story, man. Um, I it gives it our
52:42 listeners a whole different perspective
52:44 on how to build wealth and be an empire
52:47 builder in this business without, you
52:48 know, going out and raising a bunch of
52:50 capital. So, thank you for sharing with
52:51 us today. Thanks, guys. I loved it.
52:53 Thank you very much, Dustin. This was
52:55 great. This was fun. Thanks, guys. Thank
52:57 you for listening to the M&A Launchpad
52:59 podcast. If you’ve enjoyed today’s
53:01 podcast and would like to support us,
53:02 please leave us a rating and a review
53:04 after you listen. I’m Casey Mchu, and I
53:06 look forward to talking with you next
53:07 week.
