Chris Sundberg
@chrissundberg
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Christian. Husband. Girl dad x2. Looking for a great #SMB to acquire for decades, not years. Angel investor. Alum: @UTexasMBA @Deloitte @UNTSocial
Texas
Joined May 2008
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Anyway, here’s a picture of me and Aaron and our sixth grade yearbook.
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Had a surreal experience today. My wife called a plumber to look at a leak. I’m working when they arrive. I go out as they are getting ready to leave and my wife says “This is Aaron. He’s great!” He starts talking about what he’s seen and he looks really really familiar.
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He now owns the family plumbing business in Texas. He doesn’t do house calls but a guy quit yesterday so he’s picking up the slack to cover. What are the odds?
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I asked him if his last name was [redacted for privacy]. He looked at me kind of weird and said yes. And I asked if he grew up in a small town in Wyoming. He looked even more freaked out and said yes. Turns out we used to sit next to each other in middle school band.
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@GoodsCapital
Current money market yield… can change. What do you do then? Adjust your standard of living? Ideally you’d only spend the yield less inflation so you could maintain your standard of living over the long term without depleting the corpus.
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@theschnell3
Ha! We had him come look at a leak in our kitchen island and she asked him to look at like 47 other things and he did and is going to do two separate reports/estimates (one for insurance and one for us).
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Just sent an LOI on a business we really like. Here's hoping.
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I suppose it's time to announce what I'm working on next. But first, a brief background for those that don't know me: Grew up in Wyoming, move to Texas to study music and ended up with an accounting degree and a master's in taxation.
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Reminder to check in on people. Was texting with a friend I met
@CapitalCamp
and his world isn’t great right now. Not saying more for privacy reasons, but make sure you’re asking people how they’re really doing. Dig in. Don’t be superficial. People will appreciate it.
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@patrickdichter
@shawngorham
My old boss (B4) always used to drive his wife’s Volvo to client meetings because, “clients want to see their attorney drive up in a Porsche, but never their accountant.”
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For the first time, going deep on a company in the ETA/search/independent sponsor process. Excited at the potentially acquiring a great business, with strong recoccuring revenue (~5% annual churn), and incredible margins (>50% EBITDA margin).
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Part of ETA/search not often talked about… woke up at 5:30 this morning to catch a flight. Rented a car and drove an hour from the airport to have a 3-ish hour meeting with management of a company we sent an LOI to. Drove an hour back, and taking an early am flight back home.
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@SMB_Attorney
I grew up pretty broke but my mom always said it was good to spend money on things that separate you from the ground - shoes, mattresses, and tires.
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Starting my trek to
@CapitalCamp
. Excited to see some old friends, meet some new friends, and learn at one if the most high value events I attend. Bonus is I get to have dinner in STL tonight with some dear friends.
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Another great
@MainStSummit
conversation with
@BrentBeshore
and
@AustinPAdams
about how to prevent and work through burn out as entrepreneurs. Main takeaway: the people you surround yourself with are key - spouse, community, friends, etc.
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@rsg
Identifying a breakout-stage company is a) easier said than done and b) generally only available to those with credentials, a network of privilege, and/or no student loan debt. 1/2
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At
@MainStSummit
@EverestBrady
and I had a conversation about books. We both wanted to read more fiction, so we’re starting
#SMBookClub
. We’re reading one fiction book per month. If you want to read along with us, sign up here:
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Observation: There are a lot of bad business brokers out there. If you're a business broker, the bar is very low for you to stand out. 2.5 anecdotes:
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@JohnCornyn
Senator, I’ve served brisket. I’ve cooked brisket. I know brisket. Brisket is a friend of mine. Senator, that’s not brisket.
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I have had 5 colleagues who have been laid off text or call me to discuss search funds and ETA since the new year. Historically, recessions and mass layoffs have been a boon for entrepreneurial activity. Anecdotal, but I believe there is a big wave of ambition coming.
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@rsg
Where am I wrong? The companies you mention are hardly “breakout stage”. Taking a job at a high-flying startup requires a network which many recent grads from poor families don’t have, and likely couldn’t afford to since many pay below market (because options).
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It’s been a week. High - Might have found a business to acquire (maybe two actually). Low - the 18 month old son of some dear friends of ours passed away unexpectedly. Terrible but good reminder about appropriate perspective. Hug your little ones extra tight tonight. I know I am.
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Had a few people reach out via DM/email/text, so answering publicly here. Yes, we are under LOI. First full (12-ish hour) day of diligence and fundraising ✅. And for posterity, we are going with Excel and Google Drive.
Is there any software that searchers/ETA/Independent Sponsors use to help facilitate due diligence? Or doy ou just track things in spreadsheets? Thinking of something we could send to owner/broker with all our questions, a place for comments and document upload.
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@BowTiedRestore
@theschnell3
My understanding is that water damage can be covered. Wife is an underwriter so I defer to her on all the insurance stuff.
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Thought I had a great business in the works. Seller and I had a strong rapport. They frequently told me that I was a great fit to lead the business. They even suggested significant seller financing (~60%). But then they took another offer. Don’t count your chickens…
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Update: We submitted an LOI. First one and we probably spent too much time analyzing it, but we got great information from the broker/seller in advance so we feel good about the price we offered. Now we wait.
For the first time, going deep on a company in the ETA/search/independent sponsor process. Excited at the potentially acquiring a great business, with strong recoccuring revenue (~5% annual churn), and incredible margins (>50% EBITDA margin).
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My mom passed away recently after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Of all the lessons “momster” taught me, the greatest demonstrating God’s love - sacrificial and unconditional. I pray I do half as well modeling it for my own children.
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Had the privilege of having lunch today with
@KHendersonCo
. Absolutely incredible human being. Really respect and admire what he and the rest of the
@smblawgroup
team are building.
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Why is this such a big deal? We’ve been actively searching for 9-10 months. We don’t use LOIs as a KPI. We’ve looked at hundreds of brokered deals and had dozens of convos with business owners. We get to “no” quickly so when we send an LOI we’re confident on closing.
Just sent an LOI on a business we really like. Here's hoping.
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As usual, Brent clearly articulates Christian faith. If you’re reading this, it’s your sign. Even if you don’t think you deserve love, if you have done terrible things, God loves you and desperately wants a relationship with you - so much that He sent His son for you. DMs open.
This Christmas, I want to encourage you.
Your life is not an accident. You were made for a purpose. No matter where you’re from, what you’ve been through, what you’ve done, what you’re facing, or how impossible your current circumstances appear, there is hope in your future.
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Quick trip to NYC for a full day pow wow with a future business partner. Leaving feeling excited about the future. Now just need a name to replace out placeholder of “Tree Rock Capital”.
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Overused phrases heard at a PE conference. An ongoing list:
Peeling the onion
Rowing the same direction
When you’ve met one family office, you’ve met one family office
We partner with founders/sponsors
The word “aligned”
Do your due diligence
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Enjoyed playing one of my favorite courses this morning. Some of the best views in golf which makes it enjoyable even though I’m not great at the game.
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Excited for my friends
@NickOfNewYork
and
@jackkramer
who are re-entering the world of entrepreneurship after spending a few years with
@RobinhoodApp
. I look forward to listening to them for many years. Here's to the The Best One Yet!!
@tboypod
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I guess it’s national daughter day, but also yesterday the part of my heart that resides outside my body completed her first lap around the sun. Happy birthday and happy daughters day Ginnie. Dad loves you so much.
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@ianweiner90
@SMB_Attorney
@Drew_Morris
If you enjoyed that, I’d highly recommend Iger’s book, “Ride of a Lifetime.”
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Good primer on the cost of capital. A few things to add: 1) Cost of debt and cost of equity are not wholly independent variables. Using Ben’s example you might think that using 100% debt is wise since it’s less expensive than equity (10% vs 35%). However! As you increase debt…
Many buyers don't understand there are real costs in choosing debt or equity
🔸Use all equity? Give up ownership, possibly constrain growth
🔸Use all debt? Constrain the business with mandatory payments
It's easiest to start with the COST, so let's dive in 🧵 👇
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Final update (on this opportunity): We one of two final potential buyers but ultimately lost the deal. I suspect the other buyer was able to offer slightly more than we were. A few things we learned:
Update: We submitted an LOI. First one and we probably spent too much time analyzing it, but we got great information from the broker/seller in advance so we feel good about the price we offered. Now we wait.
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@RegZeller
PPP loan data + Apollo has been doing well for me for sourcing. Using Airtable to filter through everything. Happy to chat with them more if it would be helpful.
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Helping a startup get ready to fundraise and I would like to say this again, but louder for those in the back: "ANGEL NETWORKS SHOULD NOT CHARGE FOUNDERS TO PITCH." It's absurd to charge a company to pitch and/or a % of their raise.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
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First day in the
@BoldMoveBevs
office. Excited to spend the summer building Austin’s newest CPG company. Fortune favors the Bold!
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@SamtLeslie
When I was at Deloitte, the lowest net worth I saw for a SFO was around $50mm, but our 'recommendation' was that i was likely not worth the expense until you hit $200-250mm. That didn't stop people who wanted the "prestige" of having an FO though.
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@TheRealEstateG6
There’s no such thing as “legal tax evasion”. What you are describing is tax avoidance. Semantics maybe but when talking to anyone in the tax industry, those words have very distinct meanings.
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@KHendersonCo
Yup. Pods, “news” sites, newsletters, etc. It’s made me much more skeptical of non-mainstream media because I now have to ask myself “What’s the angle?” Part of the problem with the creator economy we live in is that some people have ulterior motives.
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Chose to terminate an LOI today on a business we really like. We like the sellers and the business. We didn't stick to our investment thesis and didn't have a clear growth plan. Second best outcome is that you don't buy a business.
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Today was a good day.
@BoldMoveBevs
closed our first round of funding and hit our target. Two days ago we were 50% committed. Also closed the largest (and most complicated) deal I've ever put together. Can't discuss it publicly, but thankful for all the people who believe in me.
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Organizing an Austin searcher meetup/happy hour January 20, 2023. DM if you’d like a calendar invite. Would love to see you there
@J_M_Vogt
@thomasince
@bentigg
.
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We’ve started potty training our two year old this morning and in 4 hours I’ve cleaned pee off the floor 3 times so… it’s going well.
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@nickgraynews
I don’t believe it was an accident you were there. I’ve prayed for you in the past and will again in the future (I pray for all my friends by name, Christian or not) and part of my prayer for you is that you come to know, love and trust Jesus.
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The world lost an amazing musician and a great human being this morning. If you ever played in a jazz band, even in junior high school, there’s a very good chance you have played a Sammy Nestico tune. (1/4)
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@Levijameshere
Very well may have been the right decision at the time. Remember that you can make a good decision and have a suboptimal outcome, the same way you can make a bad decision and still have a good outcome. Good decision process does not guarantee optimal outcomes.
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Rough day today. Got another rejection for a VC internship a fund I really really like. But tomorrow is another day. It’s difficult to remain focused on something you want so bad when you’ve been rejected so many times, but you just keep going. All it takes is one time.
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@wordsfromwags
@kristiethornton
@BetoORourke
@AOC
@BernieSanders
The church has succeeded in championing pro-life candidates, but at the expense of essentially everything else, Watermark included.
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@ChrisField
@WichitaFrom
Even more serendipity! My mom passed away earlier this year. I found my old yearbooks while going through her things and they were one of a handful of things I brought back from Wyoming. Insane!
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Re-reading Shoe Dog by Phil Knight. One of my all time favorite books and so many great nuggets. Just came across a favorite line of mine: “The cowards never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us.” Pure poetry.
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Co-sign. My biggest desire for my kids is that they work in food service, retail, or hospitality at some point in their lives. Helps to develop empathy.
Everyone should experience working in retail, hospitality or the service industry sometime in their life. Especially if you enjoy delighting customers.
Many in tech and VC would greatly benefit to learn more about customer service that doesn’t include the words “chat bot.”
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Had a great time speaking with the
@VentureFellows
at
@UTexasMBA
about search funds,
#SMB
and entrepreneurship. Special thanks to Stephen Goddard from Kamylon Holdings for coming from the east coast to support ETA at McCombs.
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Always enjoy hearing a good business broker speak and
@ClintFiore
is one of the best.
@MainStSummit
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@Whitney_Sheph
“I don’t have industry experience but I am willing to learn. I do have experience leading teams, enabling a great culture, and being a responsible financial steward. I’m only interested in buying a great business and that’s why I’m interested in this one.”
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Was at a dinner with a couple well known HF managers and the regional leader of a very large bank last night and the consensus is that there likely won’t be any rate cuts this year, and potentially maybe even one rate hike left to go.
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Everyone should have a partner who is as big a cheerleader as
@SMB_Attorney
is for
@KHendersonCo
.
Before we turn the page on this chapter and look ahead, I want to clearly highlight just how extraordinary Kevin’s (
@khendersonco
) achievement was so that everyone can fully appreciate it.
Here goes:
In July 2022, Kevin and I co-founded our law firm,
@smblawgroup
.
We started
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4/4 It’s the least I can do for someone who has worked hard and been a loyal member of the team who is now unemployed through no fault of their own. Each one of the millions of unemployed is a person with a story, family and friends. The least we can do is be kind.
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Got my second dose today. Here’s hoping the side effects aren’t too bad, but doing my part to help protect myself and others from the ‘rona.
#ProtectTexasTogether
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I am a licensed CPA in the state of Texas, have a graduate degree in taxation and an MBA. I don’t really know how to use Quickbooks. So… I’m teaching myself using a small investment entity (not as good as an opco, but still a good learning experience).
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Very good thread on the pros and cons of traditional vs self-funded search (without trying to claim that one is better than the other). Well done Chris!
With over $7 Trillion of businesses to be sold in the next 10 years, it's a bit of a gold rush.
There are 2 main methods for acquiring a business.
Let's break down the differences and choose the best option:
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Great time being able to hear
@bgurley
and
@tfadell
talk about Tony’s new book, architecting a great career, and how failure is not just a great teacher, but the only teacher.
@UTexasMcCombs
@MillsLil
#whatstartshere
#whymccombs
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1/4 It’s been a rough few days. Tuesday I was informed that one of the people I manage was going to be laid off. I asked if could deliver the news, which surprised my boss. My team, my responsibility. I spent most of yesterday reviewing their resume, ...
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And they said the perfect tweet doesn’t exist.
Of course that's your contention. You're a spreadsheet jockey. You just finished reading the HBR Guide to Buying a Small Business. Buy over $1M EBITDA and let it cash flow, probably. You're gonna be convinced of that til next month when you get to
@bentigg
and then you're gonna
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This one hits hard. My mom and I watched Jeopardy all the time while I was growing up. Alex Trebek felt like a member of the family.
Jeopardy! is saddened to share that Alex Trebek passed away peacefully at home early this morning, surrounded by family and friends. Thank you, Alex.
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Constantly amazed and thankful for the great relationships I’ve developed because of this website. For those who are afraid of jumping into conversations (especially students!).. don’t be scurred. Interact, learn and develop those relationships. You never know where they will go.
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I agree, mostly. I want to know KPIs but I also want to know that your raise will get you 14-18 months of runway, based on your projected burn.
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Today in my Investment Theory and Portfolio Management Class we spent most of the time talking about GameStop and reddit. I am mostly impressed that my prof knows how to navigate reddit.
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@sulemanali
Absolutes are irrelevant with knowing the base. Blackrock had made more than $10m on “too lazy to count” number of investments.
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@J2Way_
@bgurley
@Jason
That’s a fair question. I fully support evolving our views as we learn new things. But <6 months from “Protestors who damage and Federal building will be prosecuted” to “Ah, come on guys, please stop” doesn’t appear to be an evolution. It’s based on the identity of the protestors
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A lot of otherwise very intelligent people are terrible writers. If you want to differentiate yourself, learn to write well.
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"Life is harder when you expect a lot of the world and little of yourself.
Life is easier when you expect a lot of yourself and little of the world.
High standards, low expectations."
-
@JamesClear
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Another question for
#SMB
#ETA
#searchfund
twitter... has anyone put a portion of a company they acquired into a self-directed IRA? Friend asked me about it recently and it hadn't really occurred to me but seems smart. Any traps to be aware of?
@baldridgecpa
@patrickdichter
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Got to have a conversation today with someone I’ve admired professionally for most of my adult life. It was a short conversation, but I got so much out of it and I’m thankful for those who take time to instill their wisdom on the next generation after they’ve made it big.
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@RickFelten
This resonates deeply for me. My mom passed away earlier this summer while a startup portfolio company was having some fundraising issues and I kept thinking how weird it was that the world didn’t stop when I needed it to.
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@JoshWomack
@RobertMSterling
My favorite clients at Deloitte know that game and would ask to go to chipotle rather than Perry’s. My kind of people.
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Great time hanging with old friends and meeting some new ones!
March Madness event is heating up at the SMB Lounge.
The community is one of the best aspects of entrepreneurship!
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Got to go see the first production run for
@BoldMoveBevs
today and it made me want to buy a co-packer/co-manufacturer. Chatted with the owner a bit and for their niche (travel bottle of spirits) he said $5mm of equipment generates $60mm of annual revenue.
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How not to do sales: Just received an unsolicted call from a roofing company asking if I had any objection to someone getting on my roof for a "free inspection." I said no because our roof had recently been replaced. Their response: "Shut the f*ck up" and then they hung up.
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I’ll be in the car for 5-ish hours today en route to have dinner with a business owner. If anyone wants to chat, DM me you number. Noon-5p CT.
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@joshuamschultz
@aebridgeman
@RegZeller
@housleyd
@amagijosh
@EverestBrady
@CliffPCarey
@JessicAcumatica
@TheAutomateNerd
@joelmfg
@willroman
A+ event. Met some great new friends.
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@fortworthchris
So pumped for this. I started reading his book at a particularly difficult time in my life and it really helped to put some perspective on things.
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Let’s go
@BoldMoveBevs
!!!
Congrats to
@BoldMoveBevs
and
#LocusLock
who will be representing
@UTAustin
in this year's
@RBPC
and competing for over $1M in prizes! 🤘🏽
#HookEm
#RBPC22
Special shoutout to the
#BoldMove
team who won
#TVLIC
last Dec! 🚀
#WhyMcCombs
#WhatStartsUpHere
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@fortworthchris
@friedberg
Sent a few emails to people I’m confident know him. Will let you know if anything hits.
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