PODCAST · business
Inspired Or Acquired
by Clint Fiore, Patrick Dichter
The show where business owners get a valuation and share if they would sell or want to hold on. Real conversations, real numbers, real life.
Episodes
-
Joe Pohlen - Big Vision & Big Impact Buying Assisted Living Communities
In this episode, Joe Pohlen, CEO of Cardinal Senior Living, shares his journey in the assisted living industry, discussing the growth of his business, the challenges faced, and the importance of operational excellence. He reflects on his transition from self-storage to senior care, the…
more -
Martha Stavrou - Can you sell one division of a company?
Martha has built two niche businesses with her husband Tim, and recently they've been wondering what it might be like to sell one. They help hotels move out furniture before remodels, liquidate or store old furniture, and install new furniture. They also have an amazing 24,000 square foot retail...
-
Paul Sanneman - Building A Business You Love Through Great People
Paul Sanneman has built the perfect lifestyle business with Contractor Staffing Source. His $2.5M revenue recruiting business could run without him if needed, but he's enjoying the work he does every day. He's also built it around his lifestyle so we can spend plenty of time with family, working...
-
Sam Allsopp - Sell A Roofing Business at $50M? Or Scale to $100M?
Sam Allsopp has quickly grown Neal Roofing & Waterproofing to over $40M revenue within 5 years. We discuss the key growth levers, what his company might sell for today, and what could tempt him to eventually sell. Sam also shares the multiple range he's seen other nearby roofing companies sell…
more -
Nathan Lindley - HVAC Struggles To Success
Nathan Lindley, owner of Done Right, shares his journey in the HVAC industry, discussing the challenges and successes of acquiring and professionalizing small HVAC businesses. He's almost one broke twice before figuring out how to make things work, and done 9 acquisitions along the way. We…
more -
Casey McDaniel - Pest Control & Crazy Exit Multiples
Pest control companies sell for some of the highest multiples of any services businesses - this podcast uncovers why. Patrick Dichter and Clint Fiore interview Casey McDaniel, the co-founder of King Pest Solutions. We discuss Casey's journey of scaling to +$2M within 3 years, what the business...
-
Mark & Katie Fleming - Building A Unique Equity Partner HoldCo For Acquisitions
Mark and Katie Fleming from Owner Actions have one of the most interesting business models we've heard from guests. They've taken experience in wealth management and marketing to owning a diverse portfolio of businesses that includes cleaning companies, restaurants, and HVAC. Katie and Mark take…
more -
Business Broker Insights - How To Value A Business & How To Sell A Business
A special 'behind the scenes' episode where we break down how businesses get valued, what it's like to list them for sale, and pointers for sellers to get a deal done. Clint and Patrick discuss the importance of qualifying a business for sale, understanding seller's discretionary earnings (SDE),...
-
Brandon Hall - Sell Now With Exit Multiples High? Or Keep Growing?
Brandon Hall is one of the most impressive accounting firm growth stories we've known. He started Hall CPA PLLC in 2015 and has grown it organically to +$14.5M revenue and 150 team members. We discuss what would tempt him to sell the firm, AI impacting margins, if exit multiples in accounting…
more -
Alex Nelson - To Buy Or Build? Wedding Venue & Coffee Chain Adventures
Alex Nelson is an impressive entrepreneur in Iowa who built a wedding venue from scratch to $4M revenue within a few years. He also recently bought a chain of coffee shops then renovated and rebranded. We discuss what each business might sell for today, which one Alex might sell, and his long…
more -
Kyle Ewing - Hire a CEO Or Sell a $12M business?
Kyle Ewing is the founder of Terraslate, which manufactures and prints waterproof, and rip-proof paper designed to replace traditional lamination. Kyle shares how he scaled the business to over $10M in annual revenue while maintaining 100% ownership and fending off overseas knockoffs. We discuss...
-
Brett McManus - Building $1M Equity In 1 Year With Apres Inn
Brett and Casey McManus bought an old motel in Killington, Vermont a year ago. They've shared all the highs and lows on Instagram such as fixing their own HVAC, doing bathroom remodels, and increasing revenue. We discuss how much the value has gone up in just a year and if they'd sell or not. We...
-
Cassi Niekamp - Growing A Fencing Business 5x
Cassi Niekamp left a corporate career in sales and bought Bowden Fence Company four years ago. She's grown top line revenue 5x and improved the business tremendously but still feeling lots of stress managing that growth. We discuss what the business is worth today, if she would sell soon, and…
more -
Daniel Magazu - Not Selling Before $5M Profit
Daniel Magazu's first entrepreneurial venture was a landscaping and mulch business he started during college. With the mulch business he cracked the code on Facebook group marketing, and has since gone all in on scaling his marketing agency business, Ride The Wave. It's growing very quickly and…
more -
Christian Kobes - Fast Growth Employee Benefits Firm
Christian Kobes is quickly scaling 19:21 Consultants Co, an independent health insurance and employee benefits firm. They've found their niche providing better, modern service to clients with +50 employees. Christian expects revenue to nearly double again this year. We discuss the M&A landscape…
more -
Furkan Yuce - Inspiring Story of Scaling Elevation Flooring
Furkan Yuce started Elevation Flooring with a couple scrappy partners and $2500 in the bank 7 years ago. Since then they've grown it organically to $7M revenue in 2024 and they're on pace for $10-12M in 2025. They've built some unique advantages that help them scale and be competitive like...
-
Tim Ryan - 4 Pool Business Exits & Building SaaS
Tim Ryan has successfully built a pool cleaning business from scratch and sold it - 4 times over! Why does he keep doing it? He's been building a software for pool cleaning companies and is committed a scalable SaaS venture. We discuss what he learned with each exit, the sale multiples, and what...
-
Brendan Dawson - What buyers might pay the most for Accident Plan?
Brendan Dawson is the founder of Accident Plan, a niche software company solving big problems in commercial trucking. AccidentPlan is a risk management SaaS platform for trucking that mitigates common pitfalls when a commercial vehicle crashes to help keep companies major lawsuits and keep their...
-
David Barlev - Would you sell Goji Labs for $20M or hold on?
David Barlev started Goji Labs with his business partner 10 years ago. Goji Labs is a digital product agency building custom software, apps, and tools to drive business outcomes. They're grown steadily to $6.5M revenue and +35% EBITDA margins. We discuss what Goji might be worth today, if they'd...
-
Matt Glaros - Health Insurance Exit & Buying Print Shops
Matt Glaros joined his small family health insurance brokerage, helped grow it 3x, and recently sold to a large strategic buyer, Hub. He's enjoying working for Hub and business is cranking more than ever. We discuss what went into the decision to sell and how they ended up a very high multiple...
-
David Ensley - Building vs Buying Orthodontic Practices
Dr. David Ensley has built Celebrate Dental & Braces in Austin to $1.5M revenue and $500k EBITDA within 3 years. He has his sites on multiple offices in Austin, and he's also a partner in a larger DSO that does +$70M of combined revenue. We discuss what his practice could sell for now, how...
-
Shane Ehrsam - Buying & Improving North Texas Trailers
Shane Ehrsam bought North Texas Trailers just a few years ago. Since then he's grown revenue to $11.5M, improved the team and tech, and maintained healthy margins. We dig into what the business is worth today and if he would sell soon, capital allocation for inventory vs real estate vs new...
-
Robert Mayer - Is A Party Business Worth $3-4M??
Robert Mayer has built an amazing business with Arizona Party Bike. It's a unique tour company based in Arizona specializing in pedal-powered party bikes where guests can enjoy their favorite adult beverages on board. He's been a pioneer in the industry bringing the model to the US, manufacturing...
-
Hayden Slack - Scaling A Family Business 8x and Buying It
Hayden Slack joined the family foundation repair business at $4M revenue and grew to $30M. He also launched a plumbing business from scratch that's grown to $4M revenue. We discuss what the plumbing business is worth and if he'd sell it; we also cover what it's like navigating family dynamics and...
-
Inspired Or Acquired - 10k downloads, listener questions, and our 2025 goals
This is a special episode of Inspired Or Acquired to celebrate 10,000 downloads, reflect on learnings from prior episodes, share 2025 goals, and answer listener questions. The shows hosts, Clint Fiore and Patrick Dichter, also give some of their career backstory of how they ended up Mergers &...
-
Ben Tiggelaar - Buying IT Services Companies
In 2023 Ben Tiggelaar made the acquisition most people dream of - an IT services business that's recession resistant, with sticky clients, healthy margins, management team in place, and can be run remotely. He's steadily improved the business and made another acquisition already putting revenue...
-
Marc Hawk - The Journey of Selling RevLocal To Hibu
Marc Hawk joins Inspired Or Acquired to share the journey of selling RevLocal to Hibu. Marc Hawk was the CEO of RevLocal for 14 years and is now part of the Hibu team as EVP. During that 14 year run, RevLocal became one one of the biggest digital marketing agencies for small businesses. Marc...
-
Jameson Haslam - Can West Coast Decks grow to $10 million?
What does a Stanford grad and former investment banking employee employee do when they start their own business? A deck construction company of course. Jameson Haslam has quickly built West Coast Deck to over $1.2M revenue within 2.5 years. He's dialed in content marketing and social media, and...
-
Ian McKenna - To Sell Or Grow A Great Lab Services Business?
Ian started InTech Scientific years ago and it's become a very profitable and well respected business. He services lab equipment in universities, hospitals and bioteach startups through New England. Now he's getting inquiries and offers from buyers, and he's wondering what his business is worth…
more -
Cheryl Ham - Building A Craft & Subscription Business To +$1M Revenue
Cheryl Ham has built Hypnotic Yarn into a +$1M revenue business with 28% net profit margin and 80% of revenue on a subscription basis. She was an amazing story of trying to 'create a little side hustle' that has become a great business with a great mission to help customers unleash their...
-
Devin Wanzor - Lessons Buying and Selling 10 Businesses
Devin Wanzor has bought and sold more than 10 businesses. He joins the podcast to share his journey from being an SBA lender to being part of a sign manufacturing roll up to buying a high end liquor store and recently buying a business close to his passion for flying planes. We also discuss how...
-
Chis Edwards - Buying, Growing, and Selling A Flooring Business
Chris Edwards recently sold his flooring business in Steamboat, Colorado. He bought the business just 3.5 years prior then quickly grew revenue 50% and grew EBITDA 100%. He's an amazing example of what's possible in acquisition entrepreneurship. Our conversation dives into the hard lessons…
more -
POV Husband - Buying Restaurants, Real Estate & Content Creation
'POV Husband' is a genuine, funny follow on TikTok and Instagram. Prior to becoming a content creator he worked in banking and bought a business to escape his 9-5. He ended up buying a fast casual restaurant in 2020. Then they quickly bought a 2nd and 3rd location with real estate. In 2022 they...
-
Matt Cafrelli - From CPA To Home Services HoldCo
Matt Cafrelli left a stable career in accounting to dive into the riskier world of acquisition entrepreneurship. He and his partner created a HoldCo to buy some service businesses. Their first acquisition was a window cleaning company in April 2023, followed quickly by a landscaping business in...
-
Jesus Montelongo - Inspiring Story Of Growing Longhill Contracting to +$2.7M EBTIDA
Jesus started Longhill Contracting 7 years ago doing drywall and paint contracting for home builders and multifamily developers. They've grown organically very quickly due to Jesus' servant leadership, his great team doing great work, and housing growth in Colorado. In 2024 they're on pace for…
more -
Mike Pedro - Scaling & Selling A Med Spa Group Platform
Mike Pedro and Danielle Pedro started MD Esthetics med spa in 2018. They've grown quickly to 13 locations and $2.5M EBITDA through acquisitions and brand new locations. They recently signed a Letter of Intent to join forces with a private equity group - so we dive into how the deal happened,...
-
Johannes Hock - Leaving Private Equity Career To 10x DFW Turf
Johannes Hock left private equity early in his career with the aim to build wealth faster through an exit after buying a business. In 2022 he bought DFW Turf and he's quickly grown the business from $5M to $20M revenue and +3 states through organic growth and additional acquisitions. He sees a…
more -
Mike Botkin - Massive Landscaping Rollup & Exit Within 2 years
Mike Botkin is an incredible story of what's possible in the small to mid sized acquisitions space. He left a great job to buy a very small $780k revenue residential landscaping acquisition. Then he completed 6 more acquisitions and focused on commercial maintenance landscaping. They ended up...
-
Ryan Bakke - Quickly Scaling a CPA Firm
Ryan Bakke has built Tax Strategy 365 very quickly and his profit margins are 20-30% better than most similar tax firms. This also makes it difficult to place a value on and tough to tempt him to want to sell. We dive deep into the marketing tactics and funnel he uses to grow quickly and where…
more -
Jordan Evans - Buying The Family Business and Scaling to $12M
Jordan Evans bought his parents small language services business and has grown it very quickly to $12M revenue. He discusses how they've growth through organic growth and additional acquisitions. And he has his sites set on $50M revenue before a possible exit. Jordan Evans on X:...
-
Baird Kleinsmith - Building a +$28M Storage Portfolio & LatAm Staffing Firm
Baird Kleinsmith loves to say he bought a few 'crappy little self storage' businesses. The reality is within 3 short years he took massive action and calculated risk to build up a self storage portfolio worth over $28M. He's also started HireLATAM, an offshore staff business that's growing...
-
Jeff Toren - Top Franchise Entrepreneur Shares Highs and Lows
Jeff Toren owns two franchise concepts in Philadelphia - 7 KitchenTuneUp locations and 2 iLoveKickBoxing locations. He's been the #1 franchisee for sales in KitchenTuneUp prior years and in the top performers for iLoveKickBoxing. But the last 2-3 years have been really hard going through massive...
-
Alex Forbes - To Scale? Or Sell His Custom Cabinetry Business?
Alex Forbes has built Lane17 Custom Cabinetry to +$1.5M revenue. They have great sales momentum and are really hitting their stride in ops to be able to keep scaling, but the business today might not be worth enough to temp Alex to sell. We discuss what size he might want to grow to, how hard…
more -
Craig Hausz - Are Accounting Firms or Wealth Management Firms More Valuable?
Craig Hausz has grown a fantastic accounting firm and wealth management firm, CMH Advisors, with his wife Michelle. They've recently landed on the Inc5000 list for all their growth the last few years; they've also successfully completed six firm acquisitions. This Inspired Or Acquired episode is…
more -
Austin Linney - Crazy HVAC Acquisition Rollercoaster
Austin Linney shares a wild, winding journey of buying an HVAC business that involves huge risk, shady characters, and quickly growing it by +300% within 2 years. Austin Linney on X: https://twitter.com/AustinLinney Clint Fiore on X: https://twitter.com/ClintFiore Patrick Dichter on X:...
-
Lauren Coleman - Turning Motel Acquisitions Into Development and Hospitality Brands
Lauren Coleman is a powerhouse entrepreneur, designer, and mom. She's bought and renovated two motels in Colorado, and has plans for more. Her holding company, The Sursy, is a mix of hospitality brands, retail concepts, and real estate development. We dive into all the adversity and challenges...
-
Dustin Keller - Inspiring Rollup of Auto Repair and Real Esate
Dustin Keller bought a small auto repair business at 19 in Columbus, Ohio. Since then he's grown Alpha Automotive to 9 locations through acquisitions and organic growth. This year he's on pace for over $12M in revenue, and he also owns the real estate at each location. The interview is a great...
-
Peter Lohmann - Could he be tempted to sell his property management business soon?
Peter Lohmann has built a great property management business in Columbus, Ohio that does nearly $3M in revenue and only takes 15 hours/week of his time these days. We discuss that journey, how much EOS has helped, and what it could sell for. Peter Lohmann on X: https://twitter.com/pslohmann EOS:...
-
Alan Pentz - A Clear Vision For A Big Exit
Alan Pentz has grown his government contracting business to $35M in revenue. It hans't been easy and he's stalled out at some previous stages. But he has his sights on a very big exit in a few years and knows what it'll take to get there. Alan Pentz on X: https://twitter.com/apentz Small Business...
-
All Alaska Outdoors - How do you value this incredible fishing lodge and real estate?
Dr. Bob Ledda has built an incredible fishing lodge in Alaska, All Alaska Outdoors. The world class fishing, bear viewing, and remote access has made them famous - as evidenced by a recent viral YouTube video from Wild Fly with +2.2M views. We discuss how the business continues to grow, what it...
We're indexing this podcast's transcripts for the first time — this can take a minute or two. We'll show results as soon as they're ready.
No matches for "" in this podcast's transcripts.
No topics indexed yet for this podcast.
Loading reviews...
ABOUT THIS SHOW
The show where business owners get a valuation and share if they would sell or want to hold on. Real conversations, real numbers, real life.
HOSTED BY
Clint Fiore, Patrick Dichter
CATEGORIES
Loading similar podcasts...
Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Inspired Or Acquired have?
Inspired Or Acquired currently has 57 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Inspired Or Acquired about?
The show where business owners get a valuation and share if they would sell or want to hold on. Real conversations, real numbers, real life.
How often does Inspired Or Acquired release new episodes?
Inspired Or Acquired has 57 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Inspired Or Acquired?
You can listen to Inspired Or Acquired on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Inspired Or Acquired?
Inspired Or Acquired is created and hosted by Clint Fiore, Patrick Dichter.
URL copied to clipboard!