Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: How the carve-out strategy was created Study these business buyers if you want to be a great investor 🔑 The birth of the carve-out strategy One of my favorite PE strategies is the carve-out. It's a relatively young concept in the world of business. Here's how a quick story about how carve-outs got their start in Australia in the 1970s and became a staple of modern private equity investing....
12 days ago • 3 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: They were early to the trend - and then lost a fortune Avoid this business buying mistake How to do roll-ups like a pro 🔑 They were early to a huge trend - but lost a fortune We all want to jump on the next big trend early. Now imagine if you invested in online video chatting in 2005. You would have made a killing, right? Not in this case. This is a cautionary tale on time horizon and...
19 days ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: They made $1.5 billion. The next investor lost $1.4 billion - on the same business. Warning to all business buyers My collection of business buying lessons 🔑 A $1.5 billion profit & and a $1.4 billion loss I love reading about old private equity deals. The other day, I happened to stumble upon this gem of a deal: The 1992 leveraged buyout of beloved, quirky drink brand Snapple. With a...
26 days ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: This $44 billion deal failed fast A daycare for sale in Phoenix How to roll-up software businesses 🔑 When leverage fails What happens when a massive bet goes horribly wrong? Today we're going to walk through a disaster of a deal - one that still haunts private equity. In 2007, a group of investors executed the largest LBO in history (at the time), acquiring TXU Energy. KKR, TPG Capital, and...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: They lit $1.45 billion on fire. Here's what you can learn from them Warning to all business buyers My collection of business buying lessons 🔑 How to lose $1.45 billion in less than 2 years The 1980s was a defining moment for business buying. Many would call it the LBO Craze. Leveraged buyouts (LBOs) were a new mechanism for buying companies that fueled a frenzy of acquisitions. That frenzy...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: They bought too many businesses 20+ people showed me how to buy a business 🔑 When Conglomerates Go Wrong In the 1960s, American businesses were swept up in a wave of optimism. Post-World War II prosperity, a booming stock market, and loose antitrust enforcement created a perfect storm for companies to expand. Enter the conglomerate, the hot new business model of the time Conglomerate: a...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: The sexiest venture investment of the 80s: Office supplies Don't make this business buying mistake If you want to buy a business, we'll each you 🔑 Turning $4 million into a billion-dollar company "It's like a supermarket - but for office supplies!" If a VC heard a pitch like that today, they're throw the founder out of their office immediately. But back in the 1980s, this was the start of a...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: Buying a small business is chaos. Here's how to navigate it Off-market childcare & early learning center Making millions by cleaning up crime scenes 🔑 There are 350,000+ businesses waiting for you There are over 350,000 businesses in the United States with $5m to $100m in annual revenue. No, there isn't "too much competition" for you to find one good business to buy. I love this chart,...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. Here's what we have in store for you today: Why does a $2 billion company sell for $103 million? Don't make this business buying mistake How to invest $1.5 billion in hotels 🔑 What happens when VC-backed startups fail to take off? You can probably name a dozen companies that took on venture funding and hit astronomical growth rates. Facebook. Uber. Google. DoorDash. Airbnb. Stripe. Early investors saw their initial capital multiple...
2 months ago • 3 min read