Went on another podcast deep dive about my acquisition - this one’s a longer sit-down than Acquiring Minds, so I thought I’d share my findings. If you heard the first one, there’s some new stuff in here. The TL;DR for those who haven’t heard either: bought a $2.1M HVAC business at under 3x, EBITDA basically evaporated in the first week, coolest summer in 25 years showed up, and I filed personal bankruptcy about 18 months later. Here are my thoughts for anybody mid-search or mid-ownership: 1. Location as a moat doesn’t protect the outsider. I thought the remote location protected the business, but it actually pushed me out because I wasn’t a local. The small-town vibe protected existing relationships like the ones my ex-technician built when he left the business, or the ones my competitors in the small town already had. If your employees can’t do the job in a remote area, there’s no one to backfill their role. 2. Watch for subsidized revenue. It creates a rented revenue line. A real chunk of my $800K EBITDA wasn't structural. I didn’t catch that it was government subsidized and that money was going to run dry. Better to find that out in diligence than post-close. 3. Don’t outsource QoE - give it your validation. I outsourced my QoE and they didn’t tell me much that I hadn’t already independently verified. Keep your own judgment in diligence and actually look through the invoices yourself. 4. Prioritize relationships with employees and outsource the relationship with data. I tried to do both. Coming from BI at SVB, I recognize the value of both people and data. I learned it’s actually better to outsource some of the analytics automation and focus down on relationship building. 5. Give the seller some skin in the game. I paid out my seller in cash at close. The seller backed out of his three-month training commitment and left me to the transition alone. If I did it again, I’d get a seller note or holdback. Now, what actually worked: the GC and electrician referral relationships became a third of year-two revenue, and I did find parts of the business I could automate and operationalize (the office and not the techs). Here’s the full episode if you want the long version. Happy to talk through this with anybody looking for better data during diligence or post-close - these days, I make a point of helping buyers avoid these pitfalls with my data analytics background. redacted