How I Quit My 6-Figure Job and Bought 9 Companies

Today’s guest, David Dowda (Dowda Holdings), went from burned-out insurance salesman working 80-100 hour weeks to buying his first business doing just $30,000 a year - fully seller-financed.Ten years later, he owns nine companies across multiple industries - all acquired with zero outside equity and often minimal cash down.TIMESTAMPS0:00 How he bought a $30k revenue business with zero cash down3:00 Rolling up a beach town with chairs, linens, golf carts and a coffee shop8:03 Buying a construction company 6 hours away with no experience10:31 Sponsor: CapitalPad - investing alongside small business buyers11:58 Flipping the construction business for a 300% return in 18 months17:19 Scaling a moving company22:15 Sponsor: SpaceBar Studios - b2b newsletter35:04 Creative M&A structures with 100% seller finance, bank debt and earnouts42:57 Building teams, promoting from within and making businesses “transition ready”52:05 Why he believes multiples will compress on Main Street1:02:13 Managing personal guarantees, stress and four kids under five1:06:20 Next chapter raising capital to buy $5-20M companiesSponsors:https://capitalpad.com/ - A deal-by-deal private equity investing platformhttps://www.spacebarstudios.co/inquireFollow Mikk/PrivateEquityGuy on Twitter: ⁠⁠https://x.com/PrivatEquityGuyThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.