Acquiring Minds✓ Verified in SBA records

A Brutal Search Rewarded With Success After 3 Years

with Jordan Carter · B&A

LenderHawk analysis. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Acquiring Minds.

The Deal

Business

B&A

Industry

Grant research, writing, and administration services for municipal governments

State

Year

2020

Revenue at Purchase

$2.4M

Deal Source

broker

Strategic Rationale

Jordan was drawn to B&A because it aligned with his interest in government-facing services, offered a mission-driven business with high margins, faced minimal competition, and provided a scalable software product component despite his initial concerns about lacking municipal government experience.

Post-Acquisition Performance

B&A has grown approximately 50% over two years from acquisition, reaching $3.5 million in revenue with 30 employees as of mid-2022, driven by repositioning internal talent into business development roles, expanding product offerings into existing client channels, and capitalizing on strong market demand that exceeds current service capacity.

Key Takeaways

1Part-time searching significantly slows learning velocity and decision-making compared to full-time commitment; switching to full-time search after one year was a critical turning point.
2Searchers often overestimate required personal capital and underestimate the difficulty of finding quality deal flow; having just enough for equity injection plus burn rate is sufficient rather than trying to self-fund the entire purchase price.
3Industry-agnostic searches with no targeted criteria result in poor broker relationships and lower deal flow quality; building relationships with brokers and demonstrating focus yields better opportunities and higher hit rates on investor connections.
4Maintaining robust deal sourcing activity while working on an LOI is essential; allocating at least 60% of time to sourcing even during LOI stage protects against the typical 10% LOI-to-close conversion rate.
5Meeting sellers and assessing founder integrity and motivations provides critical insight that cannot be captured in financial documents; the quality of the relationship often determines deal success more than metrics alone.

Matched SBA Loan Records

SBA loan filings we matched to this deal

PNC Bank, National Association95%

$30KP + 4.87%FY2016

First Federal Bank85%

$2.0MP + 2.50%FY2014

U.S. Bank, National Association85%

$30KP + 4.50%FY2019

The Deal

Business

B&A

Industry

Grant research, writing, and administration services for municipal governments

State

Year

2020

Revenue at Purchase

$2.4M

Deal Source

broker

Strategic Rationale

Post-Acquisition Performance

Key Takeaways

1Part-time searching significantly slows learning velocity and decision-making compared to full-time commitment; switching to full-time search after one year was a critical turning point.

2Searchers often overestimate required personal capital and underestimate the difficulty of finding quality deal flow; having just enough for equity injection plus burn rate is sufficient rather than trying to self-fund the entire purchase price.

3Industry-agnostic searches with no targeted criteria result in poor broker relationships and lower deal flow quality; building relationships with brokers and demonstrating focus yields better opportunities and higher hit rates on investor connections.

4Maintaining robust deal sourcing activity while working on an LOI is essential; allocating at least 60% of time to sourcing even during LOI stage protects against the typical 10% LOI-to-close conversion rate.

5Meeting sellers and assessing founder integrity and motivations provides critical insight that cannot be captured in financial documents; the quality of the relationship often determines deal success more than metrics alone.