Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. π Airlines buying hotels, oil refineries, and even pest control businesses What's the world's largest airline? The answer is complicated. It depends on which metric you use. If you prefer financial measures like revenue, profit, and market cap, the largest airline is Delta. If you think number of passengers carried annually is the best measure, then the answer is American Airlines. And if you look at total fleet size or an airline...
10 days agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. π160 years to roll-up the world's most boring industry I love talking about the world's most boring business rollups. It doesn't get more boring than this one. Packaging Corporation of America is a $20 billion publicly-traded company that's been around for nearly 160 years - and you've probably never heard of it. The generic name alone could put some people to sleep. But the rollup strategy is one that business history nerds like...
17 days agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. π Starting with 1,100 square feet, they built a $13 billion business This is one of my favorite stories of rolling up a fragmented market. In the 1970s, health food stores were uncommon. There were ~1,000 total in the United States and they were usually small (a couple thousand square feet). Compare that to about 180,000 regular grocery stores that existed at the time. Health food was niche. So in 1978, no one would have predicted...
24 days agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. π He bought a closed down factory and turned it into a billion dollar business In the early 2000s, a Turkish immigrant named Hamdi was running a feta cheese business in Upstate New York. $2 million in revenue with about 35 employees. That's the American Dream, right? Not quite. The business had razor thin margins and barely broke even most years. Growth was slow. Feta cheese was a commodity, so Hamdi had no pricing power for his...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. π A former employee buys the business, and turns $3.8 million into $100 billion Starbucks is by far the most famous coffee shop ever. But you probably don't know the unusual story of how it started and scaled to 40,000 locations. I'll admit that for a while, I thought Howard Schultz was the founder of the business. But he's not. The origins of Starbucks are a lot more complicated than the typical tale of a visionary founder starting...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. π He Built an Empire 500 years ago. His Strategy is Still Being Used Today Imagine being richer than the king who rules over you. That was reality for Jakob Fugger. He was a German merchant-banker who established Europe's richest banking dynasty over 500 years ago and built mining, textile, and shipping businesses that spanned the globe. And he pioneered strategies billionaires use to this day. Born in 1459 in Augsburg, Jakob grew...
about 1 month agoΒ β’Β 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. πHow to Franchise the Right Way If you're reading this newsletter, you either own a business (maybe several), or you want to own one. And you've probably considered franchising at some point. Franchising can be wonderful. It can also be a disaster. Connor Groce has seen both outcomes up close, and lived to tell about it. If youβd like his help identifying, evaluating, and funding the right franchise for you, schedule a free intro...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 3 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. πHow to Franchise the Right Way If you're reading this newsletter, you either own a business (maybe several), or you want to own one. And you've probably considered franchising at some point. Franchising can be wonderful. It can also be a disaster. Connor Groce has seen both outcomes up close, and lived to tell about it. If youβd like his help identifying, evaluating, and funding the right franchise for you, schedule a free intro...
about 2 months agoΒ β’Β 4 min read
Welcome to The Business Buying Academy with Sieva Kozinsky. π How to roll up thousands of banks In 1903, one of Americaβs oldest banks quietly changed hands. The Massachusetts Bank was originally chartered in 1784 by a group of prominent Boston merchants, including Revolutionary War hero John Hancock. For the first 100 years or so of the Massachusetts Bank's existence, bank mergers were rare. On Feb. 7, 1784, Gov. John Hancock signed a state charter for the president and directors of The...
2 months agoΒ β’Β 4 min read