Happy Monday!
Today you’re going to hear a story about Adam.
He was a Bay Area tech professional in his late 20s with a good salary, golden handcuffs, and feeling stuck building someone else’s future rather than his own.
Two weeks after joining Acquisition Ace, he got laid off, took it as a sign, and got to work looking for deals.
Two years later, he owns the world’s largest membership association for pet sitters, co-founded an investment company, and has an ownership stake in six businesses.
Before sharing Adam’s case study, here’s a powerful success story from the Acquisition Ace community.
Avi is an M&A attorney who closed on a $310K SaaS business in just 4 months after joining Acquisition Ace.
“I basically knew nothing... I am an M&A attorney by background but the business side, analyzing financials, making business decisions is not something that is part of my day job. I looked at a lot of your old deal runthrough and calls and connected with other people in the group.”
Even with 30+ deals under his belt as an attorney, he needed to learn the buyer side - and the community recorded calls taught him everything he needed to be successful.
👉 Want access to a library of deal breakdowns and a community of experienced buyers? Book a call with our team here.
Before the deal
Adam came into Acquisition Ace with no idea what he wanted to buy.
His buy box shifted ten times as he learned, and he submitted LOI after LOI.
Five of them got accepted, and four of those deals fell apart for various reasons.
Finding the deal
The one that didn’t was Pet Sitters International - a 32-year-old membership association serving approximately 4,000 professional pet sitters with community resources, educational content, ongoing certifications, liability insurance discounts, and business tools.
Adam was drawn to the unit economics immediately.
- Customer lifetime value to acquisition cost ratio of 28 to one.
- Average customer tenure of over nine years.
- An NPS score of 88%.
- A team already running the business with an owner who had been largely absent for years.
His wife had been a professional pet sitter, and had also worked at a pet tech company.
Adam’s background was in tech and online businesses, making the overlap between their expertise and what the business needed almost perfect.
(Inside Acquisition Ace, members build the persistence and deal evaluation skills to recognize the right deal when it finally appears. To see how our community could help you acquire your first business, book a call with our team here.)
The deal breakdown
Purchase price: ~$1.495M
True SDE: ~$350K
Structure: SBA loan + $230K seller note on full standby
Down payment: HELOC
Projected cash flow after debt service: ~$180–185K annually
Cash-on-cash return: significantly above 100% in year one due to HELOC structure
What he’s doing now
Adam and his wife are running Pet Sitters International together.
She brings direct industry experience, he brings tech and online business expertise, and the business still has big modernization upside.
Beyond his own acquisition, Adam co-founded an investment company to help other first-time buyers close deals with little to no money down, applying his experience from four failed LOIs and one successful one to support others going through the same process.
The key lesson
“I went in knowing nothing. I could not have dreamed of where I am now. If I could do it, I promise you can do it. You just have to take the leap.”
Adam submitted five accepted LOIs before closing one, and got laid off mid-search.
Every obstacle became preparation for the next step, and now, he’s thriving.
Ready to find and close your first acquisition?
Join the Acquisition Ace community with 2,000+ members who are learning to find, finance, and close deals just like Adam.
👉 Book a call with our team here to see if it's a good fit.
