Breaking into Manufacturing

I'm a young guy from the Silicon Valley. My early 20's work experience was in nonprofit development and software project management (with training in business analysis). Last year, I decided that I would work towards becoming an Owner-Operator through ETA. The industries I'm most attracted to are medium/heavy manufacturing tied to aerospace, defense, agriculture, infrastructure, or tech, specifically in the Midwest (precision machine shops, for example). I perceive a generational opportunity in the value chain in those industries for someone willing to play the long game as both political forces and geopolitical competition push us towards reshoring and rebuilding the defense-industrial base. The steps I've been taking to prepare for my search: - 6 week PE intensive course to learn accounting, how to structure an LBO, how to do financial modeling. - 6 month internship (ongoing) with a PE firm specializing in manufacturing as an analyst intern; I've been operating their sourcing pipeline, getting hands-on experience with analyzing financials, assisting the managing partner with systematizing their due diligence process, and observing how the partners think about and negotiate deals. - I've been deployed into different portcos as a business analyst to help their leadership teams further develop their value creation plans (answering the question: we have this idea/directive, these are our current methods/systems, what would we need to do to pull this off and what are the expected costs/ROI?). - Raised enough committed capital for the equity injection of an up to $3.5M TEV deal. Still to do: - Reach out to advisors to form a deal team. - Create a searcher website. - Finalize my buyer package to send to brokers. - Explore bringing on more co-investors to unlock deals between $3.5M and $8M. - Physically move to the midwest (planned for January 2026) The biggest question I have right now is this: I'm seeing a lot of comments that brokers/sellers insist on significant industry experience when selling their business. The impression I'm getting is that they are expecting industry veterans###-###-#### years of experience) and would decline a newcomer to the industry (like me) out of hand. I'm committed to learning from the seller and to properly compensating them for the training and mentorship which they will give me. I envision an extended transition where I apprentice under the seller for 1 year post-close to learn the ropes, and the seller rolls over some equity in order to align incentives. Is what I am attempting realistic? Could someone with experience in selling/buying manufacturing/logistics business comment on if I am likely to find traction with this offer? How would you change it? Would you have any advice on anything more I can do to prepare before I start pitching to sellers?