What Acquiring, Building, and Selling a Logistics Company Actually Looks Like | Blake Noble

If you have bought a business, and are open to sharing your story on the show, please email [email protected] you want to sell your business, I'm buying. Please email [email protected] with Blake Noble here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nobleblake/Most acquisition stories stop at the purchase. Blake Noble's runs the full distance — buy, grow, and a clean exit eleven years later. After 15 years in his family's medical device business (he started as a warehouse junior and left as a director), Blake chased a long-held obsession with trucks and, in 2015, bought TransCon: a sleepy 45-year-old transport business north of Auckland with around 16 trucks, ~$2.4M revenue and ~$400K EBITDA. He sold it in January 2026 having roughly doubled the revenue — with fewer trucks than he started with.This is one of the most complete operator stories we've had on the show. Blake is refreshingly honest about the parts most people hide: the New Zealand transport valuation formula he bought (and sold) on, why he cut ties with the vendor after two weeks, the funding mistake that left him at the bank's mercy, and the mid-ownership divorce that forced the sale of the home securing his debt — and nearly sank his capex plans. He explains how a finance broker helped him escape a "flat no" from the bank and restructure into a non-bank asset funder that unlocked the cash flow to finally grow.You'll also get the growth playbook in detail: literally following competitors' trucks to find customers, the $3,000 client who'd never once been contacted in nine years, owner-to-owner selling, Pipedrive, and the counterintuitive "shrink to grow" divestment that lifted the whole business.IN THIS EPISODE:- Why the business he first dismissed turned out to be the best of 11 - The NZ transport formula: 1x assets at market value + 1x EBITDA - Why he cut ties with the vendor after just two weeks - The funding mistake that left him at the mercy of his bank - A divorce, a sold home, and a flat "no" — the moment it nearly fell apart - Escaping the bank for a non-bank asset funder that unlocked growth - "Following the trucks" and other guerrilla ways he won customers - The $3,000 customer who'd never been contacted in 9 years - "Shrink to grow": divesting a third of the business to grow the rest - Selling for a win — and the honest price cut he offered the buyerTIMESTAMPS:0:00 - Why trucks? From medical devices to a transport dream 2:41 - Buying TransCon: the business he first walked away from 4:05 - The search: 11 businesses and 4 years of groundwork 6:19 - The NZ transport valuation formula explained 8:32 - The numbers: ~$400K EBITDA and a clean ~$1.7M deal 9:00 - Why he cut ties with the vendor after two weeks 12:33 - Funding the deal: cash, bank debt, and what he'd change 17:48 - Forecasting capex when the assets ARE the business 18:29 - Asset utilisation, leasing, and the off-balance-sheet quirk 20:50 - A divorce, a sold home, and a precarious position 21:50 - The bank's flat "no" and the non-bank rescue 24:28 - Day one: moving into a house the owners never left 27:00 - The rebrand a customer pushed him into 37:18 - The revenue engine: following trucks to find customers 40:30 - The $3,000 customer who'd never heard from them 43:00 - Owner-to-owner selling and Pipedrive 47:28 - "Shrink to grow": divesting container cartage in 2020 51:23 - How the final sale came about 57:04 - The honest price cut he offered during due diligence 1:00:19 - His advice to a young would-be business buyer