Deal closed. Searchfunder was a very valuable resource on my journey and I'm glad to have found it! If I knew almost 4 years ago it was going to take this long, would I have persisted, or even started? Not sure. I just kept going forward. I'm grateful to my wife for her patience. Now, I don't want this to sound like a "victory speech" - I know the hard (and fun) part begins now, and I'm excited to execute on the vision I have for this brand! There were so many points in my search where I decided "I'm just going to start something new" - but that always felt like quitting, I knew what the incredible opportunity the SBA program offered. A chance to "buy time" in market, buy a business who had product-market fit, employees, systems - and improve on those. I did a lot of this within my consulting as a Fractional CTO, helping companies save/grow revenue through tech/software. I plan to do the same for my new acquisition. I have owned/operated many small businesses in my career thus far, including Ecom, Events, Tech, Consulting. I did not come into this naively. I've bought/sold many smaller ecom businesses, always with cash, had no idea about the SBA program. I learned about SBA through Buy Then Build by Walker Diebel - absorbing his book, all of his YouTube content years ago, engaged in the free Acquisition Lab community, which began this journey. I want to give a shoutout to my deal team for busting their ass to get this one done. LOI signed 7/2 Term Sheet 7/13 Approval 8/20 Funded 9/30 Loan Broker: ^redacted‌ at Pioneer Capital Advisory, He's been the first guy I called about a potential deal for the past 3 years. We've became good friends through this journey. He's built out an incredible team of killers and know how to get a deal done... and even best of all, his team costs you nothing. Bank: Pathward - ^redacted‌ is a true deal guy, who is open to creative solutions to find out HOW to get a deal done instead of WHY it can't be done. Attorney: FMJ Law - @redacted‌ is the man, and always stuck to his word. If he said he was going to get me something today, he did it. He's got an incredible team behind him, shoutout to Jennifer and Frankie! Business Insurance: NewRisk Co - These guys made the process painless effortless @redacted‌ Life Insurance: Life for SBA - Ana Ferrarii is the absolute best in the business when it comes to life insurance. She made this painless. Not on searchfunder but redacted is her email. Equity Partners: ^redacted‌ with Entrepreneurial Capital - Grant gave me a chance to show them my deal even if not squarely in their usual box, and I'm excited to have his fund participating as the lead investor on this ride. I also have several other awesome investors which I'm grateful for. Some fun stats of my search: 1,353 days 1 Amazing wife 3 Children born (started with an infant lol) 672 NDA's signed (thanks GrokBot) 23 Offers sent 5 Offers accepted 4 Dead deals 1 Acquisition. Now, as I look at those numbers, it kind of looks a little ridiculous, but there are a lot of details between the lines. I'll have plenty of stories to elaborate and talk about later. Happy to connect with anyone else on this path, my business is DTC Ecommerce primarily, with a fast growing wholesale channel, just broke 8 figures in revenue. My DM's are open!redacted Will be posting more as I learn, and of the things I've learned. Til next time! -James